NEW  PACIFIC 


HUBERT  HOWE   BANCROFT 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT    LOS  ANGELES 


THE  GIFT  OF 

MAY  TREAT  MORRISON 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

ALEXANDER  F  MORRISON 


THE       NLV 
PACIFIC 


HVBERT  HOWE  BANCROFT 


^ 


OTHER  WORKS 

WEST  AMERICAN  SERIES  OF  HISTORIES 

RESOURCES  OF  MEXICO 

LITERARY  INDUSTRIES 

THE  BOOK  OF  THE  FAIR 

THE  BOOK  OF  WEALTH 

RETROSPECTION 


THE 
NEW   PACIFIC 


BY 

HUBERT  HOWE   BANCROFT 
it 


REVISED   EDITION 


There  shall  be  sung  another  golden  age, 

The  rise  of  empire  and  of  arts, 
The  good  and  great  inspiring  epic  rage, 

The  wisest  heads  and  noblest  hearts. 

Not  such  as  Europe  breeds  in  her  decay: — 
Such  as  she  had  when  fresh  and  young, 

When  heavenly  flame  did  animate  her  clay, 
By  future  poet  shall  be  sung. 

Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way; 

The  first  four  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day: 

Time's  noblest  offspring  is  its  last. 

— REHKEI.KY. 


NEW   YORK 

THE    BANCROFT   COMPANY,   PUBLISHERS 
1918 


Copyright,  1899,  by  Hubert  H.  Bancroft 
Copyright,  1912,  by  Hubert  H.  Bancroft 


Electrotyped  and  printed  November, 
1899;  reprinted  March,  1900,  May,  1900; 
Revised  and  reprinted  September,  1912, 
October,  1912. 


IN  THE  UNITED  S 


of  AMERICA 


THE  TBOW  PRESS,  NEW  YORK 


*\\ 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Now  AND  THEN     ........  1 

11.  THE  YEAR  OF  NINETY-EIGHT     .....  15 

III.  EUROPEAN  BARBARISM  IN  AMERICA  .       .       .       .  33 

IV.  THE  AWAKENING   ...     ......  54 

V.  THE  FAK  EAST      .       .     *:"    .       .  •    .       .       .  73 

VI.  EUROPE  IN  ASIA    ........  108 

VII.  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  AND  ITS  BORDERS    .       .       .  151 

VIII.  INTEROCEANIC  COMMUNICATION  .  199 

IX.  RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC       .....  210 

X.  CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  ......  236 

xi.  MINES  AND  MANUFACTURES       .....  259 

XII.  COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC        .....  292 

XIII.  A  GLANCE  BACKWARD  .       .       .....  338 

XIV.  SOUTH  SEA  ISLES  ........  358 

XV.  HAWAII,  THE  PEARL  OF  THE  PACIFIC       .       .       .  368 

XVI.  PHILIPPINE  ARCHIPELAGO  AND  ASIATIC  ISLES        .  386 

XVII.  RACE  PROBLEMS    .       .       .       .       .       ...       .  403 

XVIII.  NOTABLE  VOYAGES  INTO  THE  PACIFIC    •  .       .       .  436 

C  427623 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIX.  CRUSOE  ISLAND 480 

XX.  LEAVES  FROM  THE  LOG  BOOKS  OP  THE  PIRATES  .  497 

XXI.  THE  TERRESTRIAL  PARADISE 519 

XXII.  STORY  OF  CALAFIA,  QUEEN  OF  CALIFORNIA    .       .  535 

INDEX  545 


PREFACE  TO  THE  REVISED  EDITION 

THE  occupation  of  the  Pacific  by  the  world's  foremost  civ- 
ilization will  prove  the  most  absorbing  problem  of  the  coming 
centuries.  The  attractions  are  superior  to  any  hitherto  offered 
to  progressive  peoples,  soils  of  every  sort,  climates  of  every 
variety,  airs  of  every  temperature,  wealth  in  every  form. 

All  new  lands  have  their  primeval  resources  to  draw  from. 
As  compared  with  the  seats  of  ancient  empires  in  the  Medi- 
terranean, of  Syria  and  Carthage,  of  Greece  and  Rome,  or  of 
the  less  prolific  shores  of  the  broader  Atlantic,  whether  of  Eu- 
rope, Greenland,  or  America,  the  untouched  wealth  of  the  Pa- 
cific is  vastly  superior  to  them  all. 

So  that  with  the  natural  and  inevitable  progression  of  the 
race,  while  the  material  reduction  of  the  Pacific  is  going  on, 
we  may  with  reasonable  confidence  predict  for  these  shores 
a  culture  and  development  such  as  the  world  has  never  imag- 
ined. 

The  wealth  of  the  Pacific,  for  the  most  part  lightly  held  by 
inferior  peoples,  invites  the  presence  of  the  strong  and  domi- 
nant. The  great  ocean  has  waited  long  for  fit  occupancy  and 
ownership.  This  was  well  that  the  best  results  might  ensue. 
Many  centuries  must  elapse  before  a  crude  culture  planted 
in  aboriginal  regions  can  attain  to  a  front  rank;  wherefore  a 
transplanted  civilization  of  a  higher  order  were  better  here, 
and  it  should  be  drawn  from  the  purest  sources. 

We  have  in  China  an  example  of  arrested  progress,  of  prog- 
ress paralyzed  by  long  lapses  of  dead  monotony  and  exclusive- 
ness.  In  Spanish  America  we  see  what  work  sixteenth  century 


viii     PREFACE    TO    THE    REVISED    EDITION 

civilization  makes  of  it.  Change  the  quality  of  humanity  in 
these  countries  and  the  face  of  the  world  is  changed. 

Here  is  room  for  a  new  and  regenerated  humanity.  Men 
are  gregarious ;  the  tendency  of  population  is  toward  aggrega- 
tion, and  large  cities  are  not  conducive  to  the  highest  well 
being.  A  few  profit  while  the  many  suffer  from  the  blighting 
influence  of  the  merciless  rich  and  the  suffocating  areas  of  vice. 
Here  is  room  to  spread  out,  with  ocean  air  and  frontage 
enough  for  all,  and  with  endless  facilities  for  many  small 
cities  instead  of  a  few  large  ones. 

It  is  fitting  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  should  dominate 
these  waters,  and  that  English  should  be  the  language  of  the 
new  civilization. 

Let  us  hope  that  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  may  now 
quickly  appear  a  revival  of  those  noble  ideals  that  tend  to  in- 
tellectual and  industrial  supremacy. 

All  former  editions  of  THE  NEW  PACIFIC  having  been  long 
since  exhausted,  a  revision  at  this  time  was  deemed  expedient. 

NEW  YORK,  June  17,  1912 


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THE   NEW   PACIFIC 


CHAPTEK   I 

NOW   AND   THEN 

A  DOZEN  lines  of  steamships,  or  thereabout,  now  cross  the 
Pacific  between  America  and  Asia,  where  for  two  and  a  half 
centuries  a  single  galleon  made  its  slow  and  clumsy  way  forth 
and  back  from  Acapulco  to  Manila  once  a  year.  Ships  com- 
prising scores  of  lines  ply  along  shore,  unite  the  islands  and 
mainland,  or  sail  direct  for  foreign  ports.  Thus  Hawaii  and 
California  are  linked;  Australia  with  Asia  and  America  and 
all  the  larger  islands;  North  America  with  South  America, 
Africa,  and  Europe;  Japan  and  China  with  Southern  Asia, 
the  Philippines,  Australia,  India,  and  Europe;  Alaska  and 
Pacific  ports,  Mexico  and  Pacific  ports,  Central  and  South 
America,  while  the  shores,  islands,  and  rivers  of  Asia  swarm 
with  foreign  vessels  where  half  a  century  ago  a  timid  com- 
merce found  for  the  most  part  sealed  ports. 

Sixty  years  ago  vessels  trading  into  the  Pacific  rounded 
Cape  Horn  or  Good  Hope,  and  creeping  along  the  coasts  of 
America  or  Asia  called  at  the  various  points  for  traffic  and 
made  their  exchanges,  returning  after  an  absence  of  one  or 
two  years.  Now,  all  the  important  ports  have  their  fast-run- 
ning steamships,  sailing  on  stated  days,  direct  to  or  connect- 
ing with  the  chief  cities  of  the  world.  At  such  places  as 
Vladivostok,  Yokohama,  Tientsin,  Shanghai,  and  Hongkong 
twenty-five  or  fifty  steamers  of  the  Pacific  Mail,  The  Canada 
Pacific,  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Oriental  and  California,  the 
Oriental  and  Peninsula,  the  Transsiberian,  and  the  Nipon 
Yusen  Kaisha,  or  Japan  Mail  Steamship  company,  may  any 
day  be  seen  at  anchor,  or  arriving  and  departing,  the  last 
named  company  alone,  the  largest  but  one  in  the  world,  operat- 
ing hundreds  of  vessels,  including  eighty-three  steamers,  and 

1 


2  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

entering  every  commercial  port  of  Japan,  China,  Korea,  and 
Siberia,  witlj  lines  tot  Calcutta,  the  Philippines,  Australia,  the 
Hawaiian  islands,  and -.America. ;  Then,  besides  the  swarms  of 
native  junks  and  river. steamboats  and  fleets  of  sail,  are  thou- 
sands ofcl dr^ign- fe*jtin^  •ye^s<?Is  wBich  likewise  cross  and  re- 
cross  from  every  point  to  every  point,  or  pass  along  the  shore, 
carrying  the  surplus  products  of  one  land  to  another  to  the 
benefit  of  all,  and  nearly  all  first  appearing  within  the  last 
half  century. 

Back  of  this  was  the  time  when  small  craft  of  forty  and 
sixty  tons — seldom  larger  than  three  or  four  hundred  tons — 
sailed  this  sea  on  voyages  of  circumnavigation  and  discovery, 
sometimes  of  piracy  or  of  pure  adventure,  sometimes  of  all 
together,  now  stealing  stealthily  along  the  shore  with  bloody- 
handed  cutthroat  crew  rifling  towns  and  burning  ships,  or 
striking  out  boldly  into  the  unknown  with  a  recklessness  un- 
surpassed by  the  mariners  of  any  age  or  nation.  To-day,  the 
iron-bound  battleship  ploughs  her  majestic  course  with  pon- 
derous implements  of  destruction  so  nicely  poised  as  to  make 
the  leviathan  arbiter  of  human  destinies  alike  on  sea  and  land; 
one  or  more  of  these  modern  monsters  being  served  on  their 
way  and  at  their  destination  by  coal  ships,  supply  ships, 
refrigerator  ships,  and  distilling  and  repair  vessels,  so  that 
every  comfort  and  every  advantage  may  be  at  hand  for  those 
who  go  forth  to  death  or  domination.  With  the  application 
to  navigation  of  electrical,  or  some  yet  to  be  discovered  power, 
the  voyage  across  the  Pacific  will  occupy  no  more  time  than 
is  now  required  in  crossing  the  Atlantic. 

Thirty  years  ago  Japan's  foreign  trade  was  next  to  noth- 
ing; it  is  now  $200,000,000  a  year,  more  than  half  of  which 
has  sprung  up  within  the  last  decade.  An  increase  of  China's 
trade  at  that  rate  would  bring  the  amount  to  $2,000,000,000  in 
fifteen  years.  Aroused  from  the  dead  past  to  life  and  self- 
consciousness,  Japan  is  just  now  filled  with  a  further  sense  of 
her  capabilities  from  her  success  in  the  late  war  with  her 
neighbor.  Since  her  emergence  from  barbaric  isolation,  she 
has  come  to  the  front  as  a  maritime  power,  meeting  America 
more  than  half  way  in  transpacific  intercourse. 

In  their  steamship  service  the  Japanese  have  an  advantage 
over  their  competitors  in  the  small  wages  paid  to  seamen  and 
the  large  subsidies  received  from  their  government.  As  long 


NOW   AND   THEN 

as  this  state  of  things  continues,  and  until  our  government 
sees  fit  to  place  our  commerce  on  an  equality  with  that  of 
other  nations,  or  until  our  merchants  or  ship-owners  can 
devise  some  means  to  obviate  the  difficulty,  we  must  expect  to 
see  our  products  transported  across  the  Pacific  to  a  great  ex- 
tent in  foreign  bottoms.  Should  the  Chinese  ever  come  for- 
ward as  a  maritime  nation,  which  they  are  as  able  to  do  as 
were  the  Japanese,  then  indeed  will  Asiatic  craft  swarm  upon 
the  sea  like  bees  in  a  field  of  flowers. 

The  Canada  Pacific  railway  has  its  own  steamship  service 
from  Vancouver  to  Asia  and  Australia.  The  Northern  Pacific 
railway  and  the  Oregon  railway  and  Navigation  companies 
both  have  connections  with  Asiatic  lines  from  Seattle  and 
Portland.  From  San  Francisco  the  Occidental  and  Oriental 
Steamship  company  carry  freight  and  passengers  to  Honolulu, 
Yokohama,  Hongkong,  Kobe,  Nagasaki,  and  Shanghai,  while 
the  California  and  Oriental  Steamship  company  from  San 
Diego  to  Hawaii,  China,  and  Japan  facilitates  the  commerce 
of  the  southern  United  States  with  Asia.  The  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  company  offers  service  between  San  Francisco  and 
Manila,  and  the  Polynesian  Steamship  company  has  been 
organized  by  New  York  and  Philadelphia  capitalists  for  the 
establishing  of  a  line  to  Manila,  stopping  at  Honolulu,  the 
Ladrones,  and  the  Carolines.  The  spots  of  ground  on  which 
now  stand  Vancouver,  western  terminus  of  the  Canadian  Pa- 
cific railway  and  port  for  the  Canadian  transpacific  steamers, 
and  Vladivostok,  Eussia's  Pacific  metropolis  and  transsi- 
berian  railway  terminus,  at  once  the  Petersburg,  Gibraltar, 
and  Odessa  of  the  Far  East,  were  forty  years  ago  little  better 
than  primeval  wilderness.  From  Tacoma,  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific Steamship  company  has  good  service  to  Japan  and  China, 
one  steamer  sailing  every  fortnight.  The  Oceanic  Steamship 
company  has  lines  from  San  Francisco  to  Honolulu,  Samoa, 
Fiji,  Tahiti,  New  Zealand,  and  Australia.  The  Seattle-Hono- 
lulu Steamship  company,  and  the  British  American  line  from 
Seattle  to  Honolulu  and  Hilo  were  organized  and  put  in  opera- 
tion soon  after  annexation.  South  America,  the  South  sea, 
Australia,  and  the  far  southeast  all  have  ample  steam  and  sail 
navigation  facilities.  Further  than  this,  new  transpacific 
lines  are  constantly  springing  up,  and  new  vessels  being  added 
to  the  old  lines. 


4  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Among  the  islands  of  Puget  sound,  and  thence  north  along 
the  broken  shore  and  south  to  Mexico;  on  the  lakes  and 
streams,  from  the  Auguschuki  river  of  the  north  southward 
to  the  Fraser,  the  Columbia,  the  Sacramento,  and  the  Colorado, 
where  seventy  years  ago  not  a  craft  of  any  kind  was  seen 
pave  tule  rafts  and  Indian  canoes,  are  now  hundreds  of  sail 
boats  and  steam  boats,  flitting  hither  and  thither,  from  point 
to  point,  through  all  the  intricate  way  of  strait,  bay,  and  island 
channels.  So  late  as  1894  the  ships  of  the  Pacific  states  for 
the  previous  decade  increased  499  in  number  and  121,690  in 
tonnage,  while  those  of  the  Atlantic  and  gulf  states  decreased 
710  in  number  and  135,000  in  tonnage. 

For  numberless  ages  the  frozen  Yukon  has  held  its  slow 
course  for  2,000  miles  and  more,  uncovering  its  waters  to  the 
wild-fowl  from  the  south  for  three  months  in  the  year,  un- 
ruffled by  any  craft  save  the  kyaks  of  the  Eskimos.  Now  there 
are  towns  on  its  banks,  and  hundreds  of  boats,  large  and  small, 
on  its  surface,  and  thousands  of  gold-seekers  going  up  and 
down  its  course,  their  number  increasing,  and  the  region  never 
again  to  lapse  into  its  former  frozen  silence.  It  was  only  ten 
years  ago  when  transportation  throughout  all  Alaska  was 
mainly  by  light  boats  of  the  natives  in  summer,  and  by 
sledges  and  snow-shoes  in  winter.  The  presence  of  gold  to  any 
great  extent  was  not  known.  Now  there  are  some  forty  lines 
of  steamers  and  steamboats  to  and  on  the  one  great  river  of  the 
north  alone,  with  railways  and  telegraphs,  and  millions  of 
money  output  from  the  mines. 

Thus  on  the  water,  ships;  on  the  land  roads  and  railroads  in 
place  of  trackless  forests  or  Indian  trails. 

First,  for  railways,  the  American  transcontinental  lines, 
the  Central  and  Southern  Pacific;  the  Great  Northern,  the 
Northern  and  Canada  Pacific,  and  the  Santa  Fe;  the  rail- 
roads of  Mexico  and  Central  America;  the  transalpine  and 
littoral  railways  of  South  America,  and  the  various  lines  of 
Australia  and  the  Asiatic  southeast.  These  with  the  short 
lines  round  the  Pacific  count  up  a  hundred  or  more.  In  the 
new  Northwest  of  farthest  America,  until  lately  deemed  unin- 
habitable for  civilization,  a  dozen  railways  are  either  finished 
or  in  course  of  construction,  as  those  of  the  Pacific  and  Arctic 
railway  and  Navigation  company;  the  British  Columbia  and 
Yukon  railway;  the  roads  from  Skagway  to  Fort  Selkirk,  from 


NOW   AND   THEN  5 

North  Vancouver  to  the  Lake  Atlin  gold  fields,  via  Bridge 
river  and  Lillooet;  from  Robson  to  Midway,  a  branch  of  the 
Columbia  and  Western,  while  the  Anglo-Alaskan  Syndicate, 
limited,  has  organized  the  Northern  Bay  and  Yukon  railway 
and  Navigation  company  for  the  construction  of  a  railroad 
from  the  Unalaklik  river  to  the  Yukon,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Koltag,  connecting  with  the  company's  steamboats. 

In  the  far  southeast,  in  China  and  in  Japan,  railway  con- 
struction is  active.  The  Brice  syndicate  has  in  hand  a  line 
carrying  with  it  political  significance,  from  Hankau,  near  the 
Russian  sphere  of  influence,  through  the  rich  section  which 
enjoys  the  English  sphere  of  influence,  to  Canton,  on  the  bor- 
der of  the  French  sphere  of  influence.  Then  there  are  the 
Tientsin  and  Peking  railway,  whose  locomotives  were  built  in 
Philadelphia;  the  Wusung  and  Shanghai,  the  first  railway 
opened  in  China;  the  Tientsin-Chinkiang-Hangchau  line,  and 
the  connection  of  Burmah  with  southwestern  China;  the  Man- 
dalay-Kunlon  ferry  line;  the  overland  railway  from  Burmah; 
and  the  Pakhoi-Nanning  line  under  consideration. 

The  Siberian  railway  has  cost  the  Russian  government  thus 
far  about  $200,000,000.  Trains  run  over  the  completed  part; 
and  if  the  rolling  stock  and  sleeping  and  dining  cars  are  not 
of  the  best,  a  chapel-car  attached  to  every  train,  to  many  per- 
sons more  than  compensates..  It  was  greatly  to  her  satisfaction 
that  Russia  obtained  the  extension  of  the  Siberian  railway 
into  Manchuria,  thus  giving  her  a  still  stronger  hold  on  China. 

Three  months  were  formerly  occupied  in  a  journey  across 
Siberia;  by  the  Siberian  railway,  when  completed,  one  can  go 
from  Paris  to  Japan,  including  the  sea  voyage  from  Vladivos- 
tok to  Nagasaki,  in  fifteen  days.  A  writer  in  the  Fortnightly 
Review  says:  "  Within  three  years  a  man  will  be  able  to  get 
into  the  train  at  Ostend  and  travel  straight  through  to  Port 
Arthur.  In  five  years  a  person  will  be  able  to  travel  in  a 
railroad  carriage  from  the  Cape  to  Alexandria.  There  is  yet 
a  third  great  world  line  from  Constantinople  via  Palestine, 
Persia,  India,  and  Burmah  to  Hongkong.  The  importance 
of  these  three  great  lines  of  communication  cannot  be  suffi- 
ciently dwelt  upon;  it  can  certainly  not  be  exaggerated." 

Telegraphs  attend  the  pathways  of  commerce,  both  on  land 
and  water.  There  are  many  transcontinental  and  coast  lines, 
and  two  or  three  transpacific  cable  lines  in  contemplation, 


6  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

one  the  British  Pacific  cable,  connecting  British  Columbia 
with  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  all  confined  to  British  ter- 
ritory, with  intermediate  stations  on  British  islands,  one  being 
a  small  British  isle  near  Hawaii,  the  cost,  apportioned  by 
Great  Britain,  falling  five-ninths  on  Canada,  and  one-ninth 
each  on  New  South  Wales,  Victoria,  Queensland,  and  New 
Zealand;  or,  as  has  been  also  suggested,  eight-eighteenths  to 
be  paid  by  the  Australian  colonies,  and  five-eighteenths  each  by 
Great  Britain  and  Canada.  Another,  the  lines  of  the  Pacific 
Cable  company,  with  whose  officers  the  Hawaiian  government 
signed  a  contract  before  annexation,  to  extend  for  twenty 
years,  to  lay  a  cable  between  the  United  States  and  Hawaii, 
and  thence  to  China,  Japan,  and  the  Philippines.  The  cost 
of  these  cables  is  estimated  at  $10,000,000  each.  Twelve  lines 
cross  the  Atlantic.  There  are  about  200,000  miles  of  under- 
water cables  in  operation  at  present.  The  connection  is  com- 
plete the  world  over  except  across  the  Pacific,  and  this  defect 
will  soon  be  remedied. 

Also,  ere  long  to  be  consummated,  is  the  waterway  from 
ocean  to  ocean,  so  earnestly  sought  as  a  passage  leading  to 
famed  Cathay  by  European  navigators  four  hundred  years 
ago,  and  since.  Many  problems  have  arisen  concerning  this 
commercial  necessity,  and  the  solution  comes  at  least  by  dig- 
ging rather  than  by  discovery.  Work  is  in  progress  on  two 
interoceanic  ship  canals,  the  search  for  Anian  or  other  strait 
through  the  continent  having  long  since  ceased. 

A  hundred  years  ago  Europe  was  occupied  with  affairs  at 
home  rather  than  with  those  abroad.  Governments  were 
largely  absorbed  in  thrones  and  successions,  in  dynasties  and 
military  despotisms  tending  toward  the  strengthening  or 
weakening  of  empires,  and  the  enlarging  or  diminishing  of 
domains.  Now  the  rivalry  between  the  powers,  as  in  the  days 
of  discovery,  is  rather  for  territorial  aggrandizement,  the  ac- 
quisition of  square  miles  in  Africa,  or  Asia,  or  among  the 
islands  of  the  sea. 

A  hundred  years  ago  Spain  was  a  great  power,  and  the 
United  States  but  a  small  one;  now  matters  are  reversed,  fate 
is  inexorable,  and  the  strong  shall  continue  to  grow  stronger 
these  many  centuries,  while  the  weak  grows  weaker  until 
nothing  is  left.  And  yet,  by  orders  of  the  United  States  in 
1798,  the  Napoleonic  wars  aiding  by  their  influence,  the 


NOW   AND   THEN  7 

Spanish  flag  went  down  at  Natchez,  and  the  stars  and  stripes 
went  up.  It  was  also  in  1798  that  the  title  of  the  United 
States  to  the  territory  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi, 
and  from  the  great  lakes  to  Florida,  was  confirmed.  Yet  the 
people,  5,000,000  souls,  were  still  hemmed  in,  with  England 
on  the  north  and  Spain  on  the  south  and  west. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  little  was  thought  of  tropical  lands 
for  European  colonization;  since  which  time  5,000,000  square 
miles  of  subtropical  zones  have  been  seized  by  the  European 
powers  for  purposes  of  colonization  and  control,  each  nation 
meanwhile  deeming  it  unsafe  not  to  provide  for  increase  of 
numbers  further  than  is  convenient  within  present  European 
limits.  Though  coming  unawares,  the  late  acquisitions  of  the 
United  States  in  the  West  Indies  and  the  Pacific  are  simply 
on  a  line  with  the  world's  policy  of  territorial  expansion. 
The  acquisition  of  tropical  lands  by  the  United  States  is  a 
matter  of  deepest  importance,  as  regards  not  only  the  present 
but  the  near  and  distant  future. 

A  hundred  years  ago  English-speaking  peoples  in  North 
America  had  scarcely  penetrated  westward  from  the  Missis- 
sippi river  and  Hudson  bay;  now  they  overspread  the  greater 
part  of  the  continent,  and  dominate  the  Pacific  as  the  Atlantic 
was  never  dominated  by  any  of  the  powers,  American  or 
European. 

Sixty  years  ago  the  territories  of  the  United  States  on  the 
Pacific  comprised  a  narrow  strip  extending  from  the  moun- 
tains to  the  sea,  and  inhabited  by  wild  beasts  and  wild  men, 
the  title  to  which  was  hotly  disputed  by  England.  Now 
they  are  little  less  than  8,000  square  miles  in  extent,  an  area 
tributary  to  the  Pacific  greater  than  that  of  France,  Germany, 
Italy,  and  Spain  combined.  With  only  six  per  cent  of  the 
population,  they  represent  ten  per  cent  of  the  wealth  of  the 
nation,  while  the  three  maritime  states,  California,  Oregon, 
and  Washington,  contain  fifty-seven  per  cent  of  the  wealth 
of  the  Pacific  states.  Yet  with  all  this,  the  total  imports  and 
exports  of  the  Pacific  states  are  but  5.69  per  cent  of  the 
foreign  trade  of  the  United  States. 

Fifty  years  ago  a  large  part  of  these  lands  was  still  unre- 
claimed from  savagism.  The  inhabitants  were  but  partially 
clothed,  dwelling  in  huts,  and  eating  roots,  fish,  and  game. 
They  have  passed  away  for  the  most  part,  vanished,  and  in 
1 


8 

their  place  are  cities  and  towns,  gardens  and  plantations,  a 
thousand  industries  and  ten  thousand  happy  homes  where 
dwell  virtue  and  culture.  For  the  ships  that  come  and  go 
precious  freight  is  provided,  as  the  lands  make  liberal  returns 
and  furnish  food  for  distant  millions. 

Forty  years  ago  the  natives  of  California  and  the  North- 
west coast  trapped  salmon  at  the  waterfalls,  chiefly  for  their 
own  food.  Now,  canneries  on  the  Yukon,  the  Auguschuki, 
Chignik  bay,  the  Fraser,  the  Columbia,  and  other  streams  have 
their  own  fleets  of  sailing  vessels  and  steamers  to  carry  their 
product  to  market  by  the  hundred  thousand  cases. 

Sixty  years  ago  the  presence  of  gold  and  silver  north  of 
the  present  boundary  line  of  Mexico  and  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi river  was  scarcely  known;  since  which  time  some  $6,000,- 
000,000  in  metals  have  been  given  by  this  region  to  the  world, 
an  amount  equivalent  to  twice  the  cost  of  the  civil  war,  and 
twice  the  property  value  of  Manhattan  island. 

So  I  might  continue  to  bring  forward  examples  of  recent 
origin  and  phenomenal  development  in  the  industries  at- 
tending human  progress  in  the  countries  around  the  Pa- 
cific. 

The  far  west  facing  the  far  east,  with  the  ocean  between, 
have  lain  hitherto  at  the  back  door  of  both  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica. Now  by  magic  strides  the  antipodal  No-man's-land  is 
coming  to  the  front  to  claim  a  proper  share  in  the  world's 
doings.  Whatever  tends  to  increase  the  wealth  and  impor- 
tance of  any  of  these  countries  helps  all  the  others.  The 
development  of  the  interior  adds  to  the  commerce  of  the  sea, 
while  the  sea  finds  markets  for  the  products  of  the  land. 

Said  William  H.  Seward  in  1852,  before  there  was  a  railway 
or  telegraph  on  any  Pacific  seaboard,  or  a  line  of  steamships 
across  the  ocean,  or  any  regular  commerce  with  the  Orient, 
while  Alaska  was  yet  an  unknown  frozen  land,  and  Japan 
and  China,  save  a  few  ports  forced  open  to  commerce,  sealed 
to  entrance  and  wrapped  in  barbaric  conceit,  and  Australia 
was  still  the  land  of  the  black  bushmen:  "  Henceforth  Euro- 
pean commerce,  European  politics,  European  thought,  and 
European  activity,  although  actually  gaining  force;  and 
European  connections,  although  actually  becoming  more  in- 
timate, will  nevertheless  relatively  sink  in  importance;  while 
the  Pacific  ocean,  its  shores,  its  islands  and  the  vast  region 


NOW   AND   THEN  9 

beyond  will  become  the  chief  theatre  of  events  in  the  world's 
great  hereafter." 

Oriental  life  is  found  on  the  American  side,  as  American 
life  is  found  on  the  Asiatic  side.  And  this  intermingling  of 
men  and  their  necessities  will  increase,  and  cause  industry 
and  intellectual  activity  to  increase  until  the  whole  world- 
encompassing  arena  shall  bloom  anew  and  bring  forth  fruit 
a  hundred  fold.  Within  the  influence  of  this  ocean,  exchange 
of  products  will  be  established  with  millions  of  people,  which 
will  keep  in  active  operation  all  those  who  can  produce  from 
the  soil,  from  mines,  or  from  the  mills.  With  this  world-wide 
and  universal  development  of  industries  will  arise  an  increased 
demand  for  skilled  labor.  Many  young  men  we  have  educated 
and  are  educating  in  the  arts  of  industry  and  peace,  as  well 
as  in  the  arts  of  war,  and  there  will  be  full  occupation  for  all. 
Already  the  American  mechanic  has  established  a  reputation 
in  all  lands,  and  the  technical  and  industrial  institutions  of 
learning  and  practice,  with  the  great  manufactories  in  almost 
every  branch  of  industry  in  every  state  of  the  union,  are  even 
now  well  able  to  supply  the  world  with  teachers. 

The  oriental  demand  for  American  mining  machinery,  elec- 
trical inventions  and  appliances,  steel  rails,  agricultural  im- 
plements, and  a  thousand  other  articles  will  be  great  and 
ever  increasing.  The  Asiatic  will  also  want  from  us  meats 
and  fruits,  dried  canned  or  in  refrigerators;  also  live  stock, 
horses  cattle  and  sheep;  all  raw  materials  for  the  manufacture 
of  paper  and  textile  fabrics,  at  which  they  are  expert.  And 
as  with  Asia,  so  with  South  America  and  Australia. 

For  the  rice  which  has  so  long  been  staple  food,  China  and 
Japan  are  substituting  flour  from  the  Pacific  and  Rocky  moun- 
tain states,  of  which  they  consumed  650,000  barrels  in  1897, 
and  will  consume  ere  long  5,000,000  barrels  a  year.  Thus 
is  furnished  for  all  time  a  steady  market  of  easy  access  for 
all  the  wheat  product  that  can  be  grown  in  these  parts.  And 
as  with  wheat  so  with  other  grains;  yet  if  the  land  is  largely 
occupied  in  growing  one  product,  other  products  must  dimin- 
ish accordingly. 

Nearly  one-half  the  human  race  live  in  countries  bordering 
on  the  Pacific  ocean;  the  numbers  will  soon  be  more  than  half. 
What  does  that  mean  for  the  United  States?  One-half  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  earth  within  quick  and  easy  reach  from  our 


10 

western  coast.  Cheap,  safe,  comfortable,  and  rapid  ocean 
transit,  as  we  have  seen,  may  now  be  had  from  every  part  to 
every  part  of  the  Pacific,  islands  and  mainland,  and  from  the 
borders  inland  facilities  are  daily  increasing.  If  Americans 
will  rise  to  the  situation,  and  put  forth  their  intelligence, 
energy,  and  enterprise,  they  can  feel  assured  of  an  industrial 
conquest  such  as  has  never  before  been  seen.  The  commerce 
of  the  Pacific  now  amounts  to  $5,000,000,000  per  annum,  and 
will  be  largely  increased  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  coming 
century.  Who  shall  say  what  will  be  when  the  great  works 
projected  and  to  be  projected  are  completed;  when  the  num- 
ber of  lines  of  swift  steamers  which  cross  and  recross  between 
all  the  principal  ports  of  Asia,  Australia,  and  America,  are 
doubled,  and  doubled  again,  with  yet  many  other  lines  to 
Europe  and  to  India;  when  islands  and  continents  are  every- 
where connected  by  telegraphic  cable;  when  the  transasiatic 
railway  to  Vladivostok  and  Talienwan,  the  transandean  rail- 
way, and  the  many  projected  lines  of  North  America,  north- 
ward to  Alaska  and  southward  from  California  to  Chili,  are 
finished,  and  when  the  Nicaragua  and  Panama  canals  are  com- 
pleted? 

All  the  great  industrial  evolution  on  the  Pacific,  the  ship 
passage  through  the  continent,  the  new  expansion  experience 
of  the  United  States,  the  acquisition  of  midocean  and  Orient 
domains,  and  the  enlargement  of  American  ideas  and  person- 
alities, all  come  as  the  largest  and  weakest  of  the  world's  em- 
pires is  undergoing  changes,  the  final  outcome  of  which  no 
one  can  foretell.  Some  say,  and  some  hope,  that  China  will 
crumble,  and  the  Chinese  become  obliterated;  but  it  is  not 
so  easy,  even  if  it  were  desirable,  to  subordinate  to  foreign 
ideas  or  wipe  from  the  earth  400,000,000  of  people  tough 
enough  to  make  their  way  and  hold  their  own  in  any  of  the 
oriental,  American,  or  European  communities,  as  has  been 
amply  shown.  It  is  a  different  element  from  that  of  the  tropi- 
cal islander,  or  the  American  aboriginal,  with  which  those 
who  dismember  China  will  have  to  deal.  In  taking  the  celes- 
tial empire  the  European  had  better  look  to  it  that  he  himself 
is  not  taken  in  the  end. 

It  appears  to  some  extent  evident  that  China  is  slowly  awak- 
ening from  her  long  lethargic  sleep,  that  the  hard  shell  of 
cxclusiveness  which  without  a  parallel  in  history  has  existed 


NOW   AND    THEN  11 

these  several  thousand  years  is  beginning  to  break,  and  that 
the  vivifying  influence  of  progress  is  now  rapidly  invading 
the  land.  First  along  the  seaboard,  and  gradually  toward 
the  interior,  outside  intelligence  is  creeping  in.  The  old  fanat- 
ical cry  of  "  foreign  devil "  is  less  frequently  heard,  and  in 
place  thereof  are  friendly  talks  of  mills  and  machinery;  of 
steamboats  and  railroads;  of  cotton,  kerosene,  and  beer. 

There  are  a  hundred  mills  now  in  Shanghai  alone  using 
foreign  machinery — cotton  mills,  paper  mills,  iron  manufac- 
tories, and  as  many  more  in  other  places;  in  1890  there  was 
but  one  such  establishment  in  all  China.  Many  as  there  are 
of  steamers  and  steam  launches  on  the  rivers,  there  are  scores 
of  navigable  streams  that  have  none.  There  are  now  tele- 
graph lines  to  distant  provinces;  in  1890  there  was  not  one; 
thousands  of  miles  more  of  them  are  to  be  put  up.  Here 
is  America's  opportunity;  American  steamboats  for  the  riv- 
ers, American  machinery  for  the  mills  and  mines,  and  a  net- 
work of  American  railways  to  overspread  the  land.  "  It  is 
not  merely  China,  Eussian  Siberia,  Japan,  Korea,  Siam,  For- 
mosa, the  Philippines,  Java,  Borneo,  great  and  small,"  a  gov- 
ernment official  remarked,  "  that  constitute  a  vast  field  which 
has  been  termed  the  Pacific  opportunity.  All  eastern  Asia 
to-day  is  trembling  with  the  oncoming  tread  of  progress,  and 
when  once  these  uncounted  hosts  realize  that  old  conditions 
of  sloth  and  inaction  must  yield  to  the  invasion  of  new  ideas, 
then  the  movement  all  along  the  line  will  astonish  the 
world." 

Japan  is  forging  ahead  under  her  new  garb  of  western  civ- 
ilization. Siberia  is  being  reclaimed  from  the  frozen  ocean 
to  become  a  thoroughfare  of  industry  and  commerce,  with 
the  powerful  influence  of  the  tsar  extending  from  the  Baltic 
to  the  Pacific.  Australia  is  a  marvel  of  commercial  develop- 
ment. The  interests  of  Asia  and  Europe  as  well  as  those  of 
America  are  destined  hereafter  to  centre  more  largely  in  the 
Pacific.  Says  Colquhoun  in  his  China  in  Transformation,  "  It 
is  evident  that  the  Pacific  slope,  though  at  present  playing 
but  a  small  part,  is  more  closely  concerned  in  the  ultimate 
development  of  China  than  any  other  section  of  the  states. 
The  Pacific  states  are  possessed  of  enormous  natural  resources; 
their  manufactures,  while  still  of  minor  importance,  have 
quadrupled  in  twenty  years,  and  will  in  the  course  of  time 


12  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

find  the  most  advantageous  market  in  the  Far  East."  And 
of  Asiatic  commerce,  Martin,  in  his  Cycle  of  Cathay,  remarks: 
"  With  the  growing  wealth  of  our  Pacific  coast,  its  future 
expansion  challenges  fancy  to  assign  a  limit." 

Thus  we  may  see,  and  shall  see  clearer  as  we  proceed,  that 
the  light  of  discovery  and  progress  now  shines  upon  vast  areas 
hitherto  involved  in  the  mysterious  unknown;  that  the  re- 
fined and  sensitive  of  the  earth  are  no  longer  tolerant  of  the 
presence  of  savages  occupying  lands  suitable  for  cultivation, 
for  on  every  side  we  see  gardens  of  industry,  cultivated  lands, 
heautiful  cities,  and  broad  commonwealths  filling  the  places 
so  lately  occupied  by  the  unwashed  and  the  unlearned;  we 
see  the  whilom  too  exclusive  Asiatics  now  swarming  abroad 
to  the  annoyance  of  higher  wage-workers  everywhere;  we  see 
that  China  no  longer  sanctions  open  piracy  and  that  Japan 
does  not  now  kill  shipwrecked  mariners;  that  independent 
republican  governments  now  occupy  the  soil  formerly  ruled 
by  Spanish  despotism;  that  the  islanders  no  longer  eat  mis- 
sionaries; that  the  sailing  of  ships  across  the  ocean  is  not  now 
restricted  to  one,  or — by  the  grace  of  some  Philip  or  Ferdi- 
nand— two  a  year;  all  around  this  vast  amphitheatre  Euro- 
pean despotism  has  been  banished,  the  people  for  the  most  part 
are  sovereign,  all  perhaps  save  in  China,  where  this  same  Euro- 
pean despotism  now  proposes,  by  robbing  them  of  their  birth- 
right, to  make  them  free;  that  even  humanity — not  human 
nature — itself  has  changed,  the  more  highly  cultivated  of  the 
human  race  having  somewhat  improved,  superstitions  having 
to  some  extent  diminished,  slavery  being  abolished,  commerce 
liberated,  colonial  rule  lightened;  that  Christianity  has  dis- 
carded the  use  of  the  sword  in  proselyting,  but  not  in  pun- 
ishing; that  wealth,  culture,  mind,  and  manners  have  become 
predominant;  and  that  underlying  our  development  we  are 
pleased  to  find  a  true  altruistic  spirit  pervading  not  only  pri- 
vate life  but  public  affairs,  until  even  our  wars  become  char- 
acterized by  kindness  to  the  foe. 

It  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  the  will  of  the  people  as 
of  the  destiny  of  the  people  whether  or  not  the  United  States, 
in  the  westward  march  of  progress,  will  step  forth  into  the 
sea,  and,  placing  foot  upon  islands  at  convenient  distances 
apart,  cross  to  the  shore  of  Asia.  Surely  it  was  a  mistake  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States  to  permit  expansion  to  present 


NOW   AND   THEN  13 

• 

dimensions  if  we  are  not  prepared  to  go  forward  in  the  path 
of  progress  and  perform  our  duty  as  one  of  the  dominating 
influences  of  the  world. 

Almost  all  the  choice  places  of  the  earth  were  long  since 
appropriated  by  civilization,  all  the  temperate  climes  are  oc- 
cupied, all  the  good  lands  of  the  continents  and  wide  areas 
of  bad  lands,  extending  to  the  remotest  north  and  the  re- 
motest south.  And  there  are  no  more  unclaimed  islands  to 
speak  of,  tropical  or  others;  all  are  taken  up.  It  is  nothing 
less  than  a  windfall  then,  miraculous  some  might  call  it,  these 
three  or  four  superb  islands  and  archipelagos  dropping  un- 
expectedly into  the  lap  of  the  United  States  all  at  one  time. 

We  have  no  longer  a  virgin  continent  to  develop;  pioneer 
work  in  the  United  States  is  done,  and  now  we  must  take 
a  plunge  into  the  sea.  Here  we  find  an  area,  an  amphitheatre 
of  water,  upon  and  around  which  American  enterprise  and 
industry,  great  as  it  is  and  greatly  to  be  increased,  will  find 
occupation  for  the  full  term  of  the  twentieth  century,  and 
for  many  centuries  thereafter.  The  Pacific,  its  shores  and 
islands,  must  now  take  the  place  of  the  great  west,  its  plains 
and  mountains,  as  an  outlet  for  pent-up  industry.  Here  on 
this  ocean  all  the  world  will  meet,  and  on  equal  footing,  Ameri- 
cans and  Europeans,  Asiatics  and  Africans,  white,  yellow,  and 
black,  looters  and  looted,  the  strongest  and  cunningest  to  carry 
oft*  the  spoils. 

Nowhere  is  history  so  rapidly  being  made  as  in  and  around 
the  Pacific  ocean;  nowhere  is  the  evolution  of  events  which 
stand  for  progress  of  more  increasing  interest  and  importance. 
It  is  now  one  of  the  world's  highways  of  commerce,  not  a 
hazy  dream  or  half-mythical  tale,  with  its  ancient  mariner, 
and  amazonian  queen,  and  Crusoe  island,  and  terrestrial  para- 
dise. The  long  since  departed  albatross  has  returned,  to  stir 
the  winds  of  fresh  benedictions,  and  now  appears  in  the  south- 
ern seas,  where  also  are  found  in  material  form  the  fanciful 
creations  of  Defoe  and  Dante. 

The  year  1898  was  one  of  bewildering  changes  for  the 
United  States.  In  that  year  the  last  of  medieval  tyranny 
was  driven  from  America.  Our  domain  was  extended  east  into 
the  Atlantic  and  west  into  the  Pacific,  and  across  to  Asia.  The 
Pacific  ocean,  its  waters,  its  islands,  and  its  shores,  as  the 
world's  theatre  of  commerce  and  industrial  progression,  at- 


14  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

• 

tracted  the  attention  of  every  nation,  and  a  readjustment  of 
affairs  was  demanded  to  meet  new  emergencies.  Almost  since 
yesterday,  from  the  modest  attitude  of  quiet  industry  the 
United  States  assumes  the  position  of  a  world  power,  and 
enters,  armed  and  alert,  the  arena  of  international  rivalry  as 
a  colonizing  force,  with  a  willingness  to  accept  the  labor  and 
responsibilities  thence  arising.  Thus  the  old  America  passes 
away;  behold  a  new  America  appears,  and  her  face  is  toward 
the  Pacific! 


CHAPTEK  II 

THE   YEAR  OF  NINETY-EIGHT 

THE  significance  of  an  event  is  not  always  apparent  at  the 
moment  of  its  happening.  So  far  as  we  are  able  at  present 
to  judge,  the  year  1898  will  ever  remain  memorable  in  the 
history,  not  alone  of  the  United  States,  but  of  the  world. 

In  that  year  a  new  power  was  added  to  the  nations  of  the 
earth;  a  new  America  was  discovered,  a  new  Pacific  explored. 
Europe  more  than  ever  before  became  alive  to  the  fact  that 
the  area  of  the  earth  is  limited,  and  that  those  nations  which 
have  not  somewhere  room  for  growth  must  retrograde. 

In  that  year  was  accomplished  one  of  the  most  swiftly  de- 
cisive wars  in  history,  a  war  for  humanity,  not  in  the  name 
of  Christ  or  Mohammed,  but  in  the  name  of  the  humane;  a 
war  for  man  in  the  name  of  man. 

In  that  year  was  perpetrated  the  most  diabolical  outrage  of 
modern  times,  in  the  blowing  up  of  the  United  States  battle- 
ship Maine,  in  the  harbor  of  Havana,  while  on  a  friendly 
visit  to  a  nation  with  which  the  American  government  was 
at  peace.  This  tragedy  of  the  Maine,  resulting  in  the  wanton 
destruction  of  more  than  two  hundred  and  sixty  lives,  fol- 
lowed by  the  overwhelming  testimony  concerning  the  Cuban 
reconcentrados  and  other  barbarities,  made  peace  without 
satisfaction  impossible. 

In  that  year,  more  clearly  than  before,  was  made  manifest 
the  destiny  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  to  rise  preeminent  among 
peoples,  while  the  Latin  race  declines,  as  it  has  ever  declined 
since  the  days  of  republican  Rome.  Abreast  with  the  speakers 
of  English  are  the  Russians,  distantly  related  to  the  Chinese, 
whose  empire  they  seem  inclined  slowly  to  absorb.  With  a 
good  part  of  the  world  already  secured  for  their  enlargement, 
with  their  own  millions  added  to  the  millions  of  China,  and 
all  under  proper  discipline,  they  will  present  a  formidable 

15 


16  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

front;   for  the  furtherance  of  which  purpose  the  tsar  solicits 
peace  for  a  time. 

In  that  year  was  seen  united  in  stronger  than  fraternal 
bonds,  in  bonds  of  intellect  and  sympathy,  in  bonds  of  courage 
and  admiration,  in  bonds  of  manhood  and  freedom,  the  entire 
English-speaking  race,  hitherto  estranged,  a  century  and  more 
ago,  by  incompetent  and  impolitic  rulers,  a  further  division 
later  arising  involving  the  integrity  of  the  American  republic. 
For  never  before  was  there  a  war  which  was  more  entirely  a 
war  of  the  commonwealth  than  was  our  late  conflict  with 
Spain,  where  the  people  were  united  almost  as  one  man  on 
an  issue  foreign  to  their  domestic  peace  or  public  rights,  and 
which  had  never  before  been  brought  up  for  solution  by  any 
age  or  nation.  Yet  the  entire  American  people  felt  that  the 
cause  was  one  with  their  integrity  and  manhood.  It  was  in 
no  sense  a  sectional  or  party  issue,  like  the  Mexican  war;  nor 
was  it  a  political  or  social  revolution;  nor  a  conflict  for  su- 
premacy or  territory;  it  was  not  a  religious  war,  nor  a  war 
for  anything  which  had  ever  been  fought  for  before.  And 
never  before  was  there  a  war  so  insignificant  in  itself  which 
originated  and  decided  so  many  momentous  issues.  Except 
for  one  or  two  brilliant  naval  exploits,  filling  us  with  surprise 
at  our  own  strength  and  the  enemy's  weakness,  there  was  little 
fighting  worthy  of  the  name  of  war;  nothing  which  in  our 
late  civil  strife  would  have  been  regarded  as  more  than  a  brush, 
claiming  passing  notice.  Never  was  there  a  battle  begun  in 
this  war  but  that  the  issue  was  pretty  well  assured  beforehand. 
Bravery  there  was  present  in  plenty  on  both  sides,  men  going 
like  heroes  to  their  death,  but  for  the  most  part  the  greatest 
courage  called  out  was  the  courage  of  inaction,  in  a  hot  climate 
and  in  the  presence  of  disease.  The  colonial  rupture  which 
culminated  in  the  declaration  of  1776  was  healed  in  1898, 
when  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  the  world  over  again  became  one, 
not  politically  one,  but  one  in  the  higher  duties  and  doctrines 
of  man,  one  for  liberty  and  the  right,  one  for  equity  and 
humanity.  And  that  sad  break  in  the  republic  which  led  to 
civil  war,  the  most  lamentable  of  all  wars;  that,  too,  was  healed 
in  1898,  when  the  nation  became  united  as  never  before,  north 
and  south,  east  and  west,  united  heart  and  hand  under  one 
banner,  in  one  cause,  a  cause  the  highest  and  holiest,  humanity 
and  the  rights  of  man.  Never  before  since  the  separate  col- 


THE    YEAR   OF   NINETY-EIGHT  17 

onies  of  Great  Britain  indulged  in  their  jealousies  and  con- 
tentions have  the  American  states  been  so  completely  one  and 
indivisible.  North  and  south  united  in  a  common  cause  for 
the  deliverance  of  the  oppressed  at  their  door,  and  their  hearts 
warmed  toward  one  another.  Old  England  looked  on  approv- 
ingly, and  the  breasts  of  Englishmen  the  world  over  swelled 
with  pride  because  of  the  people,  one  with  themselves,  who 
had  thus  taught  mankind  the  sublimity  of  war.  And  I  think 
we  would  not  be  wrong  to  say  more,  in  the  belief  that  time  will 
justify  the  opinion,  that  the  supreme  fact  not  only  of  the  year 
but  of  the  century  was  the  rise  of  the  English-speaking  race  to  a 
potential  equality  with  all  the  other  races  of  Europe  combined. 

In  that  year  began  a  fresh  struggle  for  life  among  the  na- 
tions. The  equilibrium  of  power  reached  at  Waterloo  was 
disturbed  by  fresh  rivalries  culminating  in  the  Franco-German 
war  of  1870.  Then  attention  was  turned  from  fighting  over 
little  strips  of  Europe,  to  the  seizure  and  partition  of  distant 
continents.  New  maxims  gradually  found  place  in  social  eth- 
ics, and  as  time  passed  by  principles  were  openly  avowed  in 
international  affairs  which  though  hitherto  acted  upon  were 
seldom  plainly  stated.  It  was  only  in  1898  that  Americans 
at  least  were  bold  enough  to  say  that  it  was  not  only  the  right 
but  the  duty  of  the  stronger  to  take  charge  of  the  weaker, 
even  to  the  extermination  of  races  and  the  appropriation  of 
lands.  Such  was  the  result  of  the  rise  in  that  year  of  a  military 
and  naval  power  which  had  hitherto  held  itself  somewhat  aloof 
from  the  world's  broader  affairs  while  attending  to  affairs  of 
its  own,  but  which  was  now  and  forever  after  to  be  recognized 
as  one  of  the  dominating  influences  of  the  political  world. 

The  year  of  Ninety-eight  saw  for  the  first  time  applied  the 
truly  altruistic  spirit  to  international  affairs.  Even  if  it  be 
true  that  within  the  universe  there  is  no  absolute  unselfish- 
ness, men  are  learning,  rulers  and  diplomats  are  learning,  that 
there  are  grades  of  political  brutality  the  grosser  forms  of  which 
were  better  abolished.  Certain  illusions  have  been  dissipated, 
as  the  traditional  friendship  of  France  and  Russia,  and  the 
intelligence  and  honesty  of  the  German  press  and  people.  The 
poison  of  international  jealousy  and  the  hollowness  of  inter- 
national good-will,  save  that  which  is  based  on  self-interest, 
have  been  brought  home  to  us,  and  the  fact  that  nations,  like 
corporations,  can  be  more  base  than  individuals,  and  that  the 


18  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

loudly  vaunted  national  honor  is  too  often  a  veil  to  cover 
iniquity.  Yet  the  Monroe  doctrine  has  been  confirmed,  and 
the  last  vestige  of  mediaeval  monarchy  driven  from  American 
shores. 

In  this  year  of  Ninety-eight  the  centre  of  the  United  States 
was  moved  from  Kansas  to  California.  A  new  west  is  thus 
spread  out  before  us,  a  west  of  water  starting  out  from  the 
west  of  land.  The  old  middle  west  is  now  east — east  of  the 
geographical  centre.  The  Pacific  west  is  now  neither  east 
nor  west,  and  in  our  farthest  west  we  come  against  the  old- 
time  farthest  east.  And  to  present  successes  and  future  pos- 
sibilities, San  Francisco  Bay  bows  in  benediction,  with  broad 
anchorage  to  welcome  commerce,  and  the  Golden  Gate  an  ever 
open  door  to  all  the  world. 

The  year  of  Ninety-eight  marks  a  new  era  in  the  industrial- 
ism of  the  Pacific.  Sea  power  becomes  as  never  before  a  factor 
in  progress  and  international  affairs.  Henceforth  more  wealth 
will  be  made  upon  the  sea,  and  the  wars  of  the  nations  will 
be  fought  out  to  a  great  extent  upon  the  water.  Nor  is  our 
new  national  strength  upon  the  ocean  beneficial  for  self-asser- 
tion in  political  and  naval  matters  alone,  nor  yet  altogether 
for  industrial  aggrandizement;  there  are  the  intermingling  of 
peoples  and  the  interchange  of  ideas  as  well  as  of  commodities, 
all  of  which  will  exercise  their  influence  in  future  develop- 
ments. This  great  ocean  is  now  for  the  first  time  taking  its 
proper  place  among  other  oceans,  its  commonwealths  among 
other  commonwealths,  its  commerce  among  the  other  com- 
merce of  the  world.  And  as  this  ocean  is  the  largest,  its  bor- 
ders more  extended  and  containing  more  natural  wealth,  its 
islands  more  numerous  and  more  opulent  than  those  of  any 
other  sea  or  section,  its  ultimate  destiny  and  development  will 
be  correspondingly  great.  And  this  new  birth  comes  at  a 
most  propitious  time.  America  is  ripe  for  it;  the  world  is 
ripe.  The  day  of  great  things  is  past.  There  are  no  more 
great  things;  behold  all  things  have  become  mediocre  or  small! 
No  more  great  seas  or  lands;  no  more  great  enterprises,  no 
more  great  fortunes  or  great  men.  So  that  when  it  comes  to 
the  political  and  industrial  subjugation  of  this  sea,  achieve- 
ments which  would  have  been  regarded  at  one  time  as  stu- 
pendous or  impossible  will  not  seem  now  extraordinary  or  of 
uncommon  occurrence. 


THE   YEAR   OF  NINETY-EIGHT  19 

It  was  a  prosperous  year  industrially,  giving  the  largest  cot- 
ton crop,  the  largest  export  of  breadstuff s;  the  largest  export 
of  manufactured  goods;  the  largest  aggregate  export  of  prod- 
uce and  merchandise;  the  largest  export  of  wheat  except  that 
of  1891;  the  highest  price  for  wheat  except  in  1888;  the 
largest  production  of  iron,  coal,  copper,  and  gold;  the  largest 
production  of  silver  except  that  of  1892;  the  largest  gold 
holdings;  the  largest  per  capita  circulation  of  money;  largest 
aggregate  bank  clearings;  largest  aggregate  railroad  earnings; 
largest  aggregate  sale  of  bonds;  largest  aggregate  sale  of  stocks 
on  New  York  stock  exchange  except  in  1892;  the  smallest  num- 
ber of  failures  and  the  smallest  aggregate  liabilities  since  1892. 
All  this  refers  alone  to  the  United  States.  Before  these  facts 
Cuba,  Porto  Eico,  Hawaii,  and  the  Philippines,  with  the  cost 
of  the  war  with  Spain,  assume  small  proportions.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  period  of  prosperity  which  would  have  come 
to  the  United  States  irrespective  of  the  stimuli  of  war  and 
territorial  enlargement.  Following  the  American  civil  war 
was  a  decade  of  business  activity,  culminating  in  the  crash  of 
1873.  Twenty-five  years  of  commercial  quiet  followed.  Then 
came  the  war  with  Spain,  the  cost  of  which  was  comparatively 
small,  and  the  returns,  moral  and  physical,  large,  with  great 
industrial  possibilities.  The  country  was  ripe  for  good  fortune. 
Prosperity  as  I  have  said  would  have  come  at  this  juncture 
without  war  or  aggrandizement.  Products  had  been  large  and 
prices  high.  Farm  indebtedness  was  reduced,  while  agricult- 
ural wealth  increased.  Commerce  and  manufactures  were 
active.  Exports  exceeded  imports,  and  money  was  abundant. 
And  during  the  time  of  preparation  and  conflict,  war  troubled 
no  one;  the  pursuits  of  peace  were  followed  as  in  the  days 
of  peace.  American  capital  came  into  notice,  threatening  the 
supremacy  of  the  London  money  market.  Although  in  no 
haste  to  become  money-lenders  for  Europe,  the  rumor  that 
Russia  attempted  to  float  a  loan  in  this  country  had  its  signifi- 
cance. We  were  surely  in  no  need  of  foreign  capital  to  develop 
our  resources  or  arm  our  soldiers.  The  United  States  is  the 
world's  creditor,  and  New  York,  if  not  absolutely  so  to-day, 
is  destined  soon  to  be  the  world's  financial  centre.  Yet  with 
all  of  our  increase  of  domain  during  this  year  there  was  no 
cause  for  alarm,  even  on  the  part  of  those  who  hold  expansion 
as  suicide.  There  have  been  years  in  which  the  borders  of 


20  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

the  United  States  were  more  greatly  enlarged  than  in  the  year 
1898 — instance  the  Louisiana  purchase  of  1,171,931  square 
miles  in  1803;  the  acquisitions  of  Florida  in  1819,  of  Texas 
in  1845,  of  the  California  country  in  1848,  and  of  Alaska  in 
1867,  nearly  3,000,000  square  miles  being  thus  added  to  the 
area  of  the  republic  since  the  ratification  of  the  constitution 
by  the  original  thirteen  states.  The  territorial  acquisitions  of 
1898  are  after  all  but  about  one  twentieth  of  those  made  during 
the  last  century.  In  the  year  1798  the  area  of  the  United 
States  was  827,000  square  miles,  and  contained  a  population 
of  5,000,000.  In  1898,  including  the  acquisition  of  that  year, 
a  population  of  85,000,000  occupied  an  area  of  3,800,000 
square  miles. 

Hence  it  was  clearly  evident  on  the  day  of  the  great  appear- 
ing, the  day  of  Dewey  at  Manila,  and  the  day  of  Sampson  and 
Schley  at  Santiago,  that  there  had  come  to  us  a  new  America 
and  a  new  Pacific.  How  dim  and  distant,  on  that  day,  in  the 
minds  even  of  intelligent  Americans  were  Hongkong  and  the 
Philippines,  the  South  sea  and  the  antipodal  Far  East!  Now 
there  is  scarcely  a  school  girl  who  cannot  tell  all  about  Guam, 
Luzon,  and  the  Ladrones,  besides  a  score  of  other  places  whose 
names  had  little  meaning  in  the  average  mind  the  year  before 
the  year  of  Ninety-eight.  It  quickly  became  evident,  I  say, 
that  the  United  States,  and  all  the  countries  bordering  on  the 
Pacific,  were  entering  upon  an  epoch  of  wonderful  develop- 
ment, a  development  which  in  time  will  give  to  these  shores 
a  Carthage,  a  Venice,  a  Brussels,  and  even  a  New  York  London 
and  Paris.  With  our  territorial  possessions,  and  the  intelli- 
gence, energy,  and  wealth  of  our  people,  uniting  for  purposes 
of  mutual  advantage  with  the  thousands  of  new  enterprises 
which  the  new  conditions  are  destined  to  engender  in  the 
neighboring  nations,  what  can  we  not  do? 

With  the  year  of  Ninety-eight  begins  a  new  age  of  human 
emancipation,  an  emancipation  touching  more  closely  the  in- 
herent rights  of  man  if  possible  than  the  abolition  of  human 
slavery — denying  the  right  of  self-injury  as  injury  to  another, 
denying  the  right  to  block  the  way  of  progress  and  maintain 
an  international  nuisance,  noxious  to  refinement,  and  demor- 
alizing to  neighboring  nations.  Man  is  born  into  slavery,  yet 
fated  to  be  free.  Slave  at  first  to  his  superstitions,  to  frowning 
nature,  to  threatening  deities,  to  cruel  despots;  at  length  as  he 


THE   YEAR   OF   NINETY-EIGHT  '21 

emerges  from  the  opaque  ignorance  of  savagism,  he  finds  ever 
fresh  means  of  self-enslavement.  Notwithstanding  all  which, 
man  is  fated  to  be  free;  and  it  is  past  the  possibility  of  things 
for  one  people  on  this  earth  forever  to  hold  another  people 
in  restraint,  or  to  impose  their  laws  or  tenets  upon  them.  As 
the  American  revolution  signified  to  the  world  democracy  and 
the  death  of  kings,  so  the  American  war  with  Spain  signified 
to  the  world  a  higher  humanity,  a  holier  integrity,  and  the 
liberty  to  do  right.  If  the  American  revolution  brought  to 
mankind  a  new  lesson  in  self-government,  out  of  the  Spanish 
war  was  evolved  new  international  ethics,  never  before  applied 
in  peace  or  war.  The  plea  of  the  first  murderer  before  his 
maker,  "  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?  "  is  now  answered,  thun- 
dered forth  from  a  thousand  guns,  "  Thou  art."  In  the  war 
of  the  revolution  the  American  people  fought  against  king- 
craft and  for  the  right  to  govern  themselves.  They  won. 
They  established  that  right  for  all  time,  both  for  themselves 
and  for  any  others  who  choose  to  avail  themselves  of  it  and 
maintain  it.  In  the  civil  war  the  issue  was  freedom  or  slavery, 
freedom  won;  union  or  disintegration,  union  won.  In  the 
war  with  Spain  the  American  people  fought  for  the  right  to 
aid  the  weak  against  the  oppressor.  Again  they  won,  and  es- 
tablished also  that  right.  Nor  were  the  United  States  alone 
in  this  work  of  regeneration;  General  Kitchener  in  the  eastern 
Soudan  brought  blessings  to  millions  of  the  human  race  in 
delivering  them  from  the  hands  of  those  who  would  destroy 
them. 

The  year  of  Ninety-eight  brought  to  a  close  four  hundred 
years  of  European  oppression  in  America,  never  again  for  one 
hour  to  be  revived.  What  wrongs  the  people  of  the  New 
World,  natives  and  others,  have  been  called  upon  to  suffer 
during  that  time  at  the  hand  of  Christian  Europe!  Infamies 
there  were,  done  in  the  names  of  the  saints,  that  made  the 
angels  weep.  Hundreds  of  native  nations,  savage  and  civil- 
ized, swept  from  the  earth  by  oppression  and  slaughter,  with 
all  the  imposition,  cruelty,  and  slavery  since  inflicted.  All  this 
is  now  over;  but  throughout  the  ages  history  will  continue  to 
throw  a  sinister  light  upon  this  epoch. 

Not  only  has  a  new  power  arisen  in  this  year  of  Ninety- 
eight,  but  a  peace-maker;  not  as  Kussia  proposes  peace,  by 
convention  with  the  powers  for  partial  disarmament  for  the 


22  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

present,  until  by  husbanding  her  resources  for  a  time,  she  will 
be  able  if  she  pleases  to  conquer  the  world,  but  by  the  intro- 
duction and  exercise  of  moral  with  physical  force  which  shall 
tend  more  and  more  to  make  war  appear  what  it  is,  beastly 
and  diabolical.  No  doubt  the  tsar  desires  peace,  and  most 
wisely^  it  was  noticed,  however,  that  never  were  his  prepara- 
tions for  war  more  active  than  while  his  disarmament  proposal 
was  undergoing  consideration,  which  would  argue  that  he  had 
but  little  confidence  either  in  his  proposal  or  in  his  neighbors. 

It  was  a  bad  year  for  royalty,  for  as  never  before  the  fiat 
of  man  was  sent  forth  round  this  earth  that  never  again  should 
man  be  oppressed  by  man.  There  had  arisen  a  divinity  of 
manhood  superior  to  the  divinity  of  kings.  Before  any  should 
rule  he  must  learn  to  obey.  It  was  practically  agreed  in  this 
year  of  Ninety-eight  that  tyranny  and  human  oppression 
should  be  banished  from  the  earth.  The  strong  should  no 
longer  be  left  alone  to  wreak  their  iniquitous  will  upon  the 
weak.  Spain's  bigotry  has  long  been  paramount,  but  Spanish 
cruelty  in  unoffending  lands  has  ceased.  Once  mistress  of 
the  world,  of  a  world  far  larger  than  the  world  of  Egypt 
Greece  or  Eome,  she  is  no  longer  mistress  even  of  her  poor 
self.  Eussia  is  strong,  but  the  Russian  serf  is  free,  and  the 
Eussian  tsar  is  afraid.  Turkey,  that  once  great  empire  which 
threatened  Europe,  though  slow  in  dying,  is  doomed;  this 
year  of  Ninety-eight  marks  the  end  of  her  rule  in  the  island 
of  Crete.  England's  royalty  is  a  social  rather  than  a  political 
function,  and  the  genius  of  her  administration  is  to  preserve 
the  proper  equilibrium  between  peace  and  the  dignity  of  the 
nation.  By  the  doings  of  Ninety-eight  the  democracy  of  the 
revolution  was  more  fully  understood  and  emphasized;  the 
rights  of  man  uplifted  superior  to  the  rights  of  might;  royalty 
receives  another  blow,  while  equity  becomes  the  watchword. 
It  may  be  somewhat  with  us  as  with  our  forefathers,  who 
did  not  realize  what  the  democracy  was  which  they  were  rais- 
ing, nor  how  effectually  they  were  cutting  off  the  heads  of 
kings. 

A  new  fiscal  policy,  based  on  internal  rather  than  external 
revenue  was  this  year  put  in  operation  in  the  United  States. 
To  meet  imperial  necessities,  as  the  increase  of  army  and  navy, 
the  construction  of  an  interoceanic  ship  canal,  commercial  sub- 
sidies for  carrying  the  flag  around  the  world,  no  less  than  from 


THE   YEAR   OF   NINETY-EIGHT  &J 

the  loss  of  duties  on  tropical  products  coming  in  free  from 
the  newly  acquired  tropical  lands,  taxes  on  inheritances,  on 
commercial  and  financial  transactions,  and  the  like,  were  ad- 
vanced to  the  relief  of  duties  on  imported  products  and  mer- 
chandise; and  these  burdens  were  borne  gladly,  so  that  this 
year  may  be  called  the  year  of  happy  taxation. 

And  let  us  hope  that  the  year  of  Ninety-eight  saw  some 
advance  toward  the  exercise  of  honesty  in  diplomacy.  Span- 
iards seem  to  regard  systematic  lying  as  the  first  requisite 
of  a  statesman.  Since  the  fifteenth  century  when  was  pro- 
mulgated the  doctrine  that  bad  faith  on  the  part  of  a  govern- 
ment was  praiseworthy,  Spanish  kings  and  their  ministers 
have  been  the  faithful  disciples  of  Niccolo  Machiavelli.  And 
the  diplomatic  service  of  the  rest  of  continental  Europe  is 
much  upon  the  same  plane.  So  that  in  this  war,  and  the 
international  intercourse  connected  therewith,  the  absence  of 
sophistry  and  chicanery  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  was 
remarked. 

It  was  a  year  of  thought  and  enlightenment.  Many  prob- 
lems, political  financial  and  industrial,  arose  for  solution,  which 
the  American  mind  had  never  before  been  called  upon  to  con- 
sider. War  is  a  great  educator;  it  teaches  geography  and 
economics,  international  relations  and  government,  as  well  as 
the  industries  and  sciences.  The  year  brought  to  us  a  better 
knowledge  of  ourselves,  as  well  as  of  the  world;  a  knowledge 
of  the  American  people,  of  their  true  progressive  instincts  and 
purposes,  of  their  ideals  of  liberty  and  humanity,  of  their  high 
achievements  and  their  higher  destiny;  that  they  have  been 
thus  far  strengthened  rather  than  enervated  by  the  accumula- 
tions of  wealth,  and  that  their  courage  and  patriotism  have 
not  suffered  by  a  century  of  isolation  and  long  periods  of  peace. 
These,  with  other  meanings  and  messages  which  this  year 
brings  are  received  and  spoken  of,  not  in  a  spirit  of  pride  and 
vainglory,  but  with  that  thankfulness  and  those  feelings  of 
encouragement  which  tend  to  yet  higher  efforts.  And  the 
deeper  significance  of  the  achievements  of  the  year,  a  year  of 
bewildering  accomplishments  bringing  unfathomable  possi- 
bilities, will  be  better  seen  and  understood  a  century  hence 
than  now. 

It  was  the  pivotal  point  in  the  nation's  progress.  Issues 
not  of  our  own  seeking,  or  of  our  own  inventing  and  which 
2 


24  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

we  must  either  accept  or  reject  were  thrust  upon  us.  A  step 
forward,  and  we  were  at  the  front  with  increased  strength 
and  usefulness;  refusal  to  move  signified  the  narrow  but  per- 
haps for  the  present  safer  policy  of  selfishness,  Asiatic  exclu- 
siveness,  and  in  time  retrogression. 

Though  ever  growing  in  area  as  well  as  in  strength,  all 
territorial  additions  hitherto  made,  except  Alaska,  had  been 
contiguous  to  the  original  or  previously  acquired  domain;  and 
this  year  for  the  first  time  the  term  Greater  America  has  come 
into  use  as  including  out-lying  parts  and  distant  islands.  But 
so  much  greater  proportionately  has  been  the  enlargement  of 
ideas  than  the  enlargement  of  territory,  that  we  still  feel  equal 
to  our  environment.  For  when  we  were  small  we  thought 
ourselves  great,  but  when  we  became  great,  we  beheld  others 
also  great,  which  taught  us  moderation,  and  to  be  mindful  of 
our  own  business.  Therefore  I  say  that  even  though  there  had 
been  no  enlargement  of  area,  the  year  shows  a  marvellous  en- 
largement of  ideas  and  purposes.  We  do  not  need  these  tropi- 
cal islands  for  numerical  increase  of  population.  We  do  not 
specially  desire  them  for  any  purpose,  except  perhaps  as  naval 
bases  and  strategic  points  for  the  use  of  an  army  and  navy 
commensurate  with  our  new  conditions  and  pretensions,  and 
for  increased  strength  and  influence  in  the  Pacific.  They  will 
never  be  occupied  by  white  men  as  places  of  permanent  settle- 
ment, as  New  England  was  settled,  and  for  the  planting  there 
of  the  domestic  life  and  social  and  political  institutions  of 
the  United  States;  for  if  the  attempt  is  made  the  white  men 
will  not  long  remain  white,  but  become  yellow  as  in  India, 
and  likewise  jaundiced  in  morality  and  patriotism.  Yet  new 
and  extended  opportunities  are  here  offered  for  enterprise. 
American  engineers  have  fields  of  activity  in  the  new  require- 
ments of  these  half  savage  lands,  as  the  construction  of  canals 
and  railroads,  and  the  building  of  public  works,  while  the 
possibilities  for  commerce  and  manufactures  are  limitless. 

Rejecting  the  old-time  tenets  that  wrongs  not  done  to  us 
are  not  wrongs,  and  that  our  neighbor's  affairs  are  no  concern 
of  ours,  here  was  a  new  departure  in  whatever  makes  for  good 
to  the  human  race,  in  the  recognition  of  humanity  and  the 
rights  of  man  as  among  the  cardinal  virtues  of  a  nation.  With- 
out attempting  to  regenerate  the  world  or  fight  the  battles  of 
all  nations,  that  which  is  nearest  us,  and  in  the  line  of  duty, 


THK    YEAR   OF   NINETY-EIGHT  ^ 

should  command  our  aid  and  sympathy.  And  even  under  the 
exigencies  of  war  we  may  use  sincerity  in  diplomacy,  humane- 
ness in  battle,  and  moderation  in  victory.  To  the  Latin  race, 
and  to  all  Europe,  a  lesson  was  given  that  needs  not  soon  to 
be  repeated,  a  lesson  in  international  ethics  demonstrating  that 
barbarism  and  tyranny  by  one  people  over  another,  be  the 
color  or  condition  of  either  what  they  may,  will  no  longer  pass 
by  unheeded.  To  new  lands  this  year  were  first  given  oppor- 
tunities for  a  higher  culture,  and  a  life  further  removed  from 
cruelty  and  injustice. 

Above  all,  the  year  of  Ninety-eight  assures  us  that  keeping 
pace  with  our  material  and  intellectual  advancement  has  been 
an  altruistic  development  of  which  neither  ourselves  nor  the 
world  were  fully  aware.  As  we  are  more  wealthy  than  we 
knew,  so  we  find  ourselves  more  proficient  in  humane  thoughts 
and  generous  deeds  than  we  realized.  We  have  proved  when 
put  to  the  test  that  we  have  less  than  was  formerly  thought 
necessary  of  enmity  in  war  and  of  subterfuge  in  diplomacy. 
And  if  we  sometimes  pat  ourselves  on  the  back  for  being  so 
good,  let  it  be  understood  that  it  is  done  not  in  a  spirit  of 
false  pride  and  self-sufficiency,  but  that  in  acknowledging 
the  good  we  may  go  on  and  do  better. 

In  Europe,  throughout  this  year  parliamentary  struggles 
were  conspicuous.  To  screen  her  military,  France  did  not 
hesitate  to  resort  to  crime  to  cover  crime.  The  Spanish  cortes 
was  submissive  in  the  hands  of  the  queen  and  cabinet.  The 
Austrian  and  Hungarian  parliaments  were  in  a  somewhat  fer- 
mented state,  while  that  of  Italy  was  kept  quiet  by  an  auto- 
cratic cabinet.  There  were  the  reconquest  of  the  Soudan,  the 
liberation  of  Crete,  the  assassination  of  the  empress  Elizabeth, 
and  the  deaths  of  Gladstone  and  Bismarck,  the  emperor  Will- 
iam assuming  as  far  as  he  was  able  the  role  of  the  latter  upon 
his  death.  The  tsar's  disarmament  proposal  would  have  car- 
ried more  weight  had  he  begun  the  measure  at  home,  as  before 
intimated.  The  plan,  however,  displays  astuteness,  for  if  Rus- 
sia might  now  for  a  time  be  permitted  to  develop  her  resources 
in  peace,  she  need  ask  little  from  the  rest  of  the  world  there- 
after. The  Siberian  railway  and  the  transcaspian  railway,  the 
latter  with  its  two  branches  to  the  Afghan  and  Chinese  bor- 
ders, were  rapidly  advancing  toward  completion,  while  river 
transportation  was  improved,  and  educational  and  industrial 


26  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

development  appeared  on  every  side.  Except  for  England,  the 
influence  of  Eussia  in  the  political  affairs  of  Turkey,  Persia, 
Korea,  and  China  would  be  well  nigh  supreme.  The  govern- 
ment of  Great  Britain  was  still  concerned  over  the  state  of 
affairs  in  South  Africa,  no  less  than  over  what  appeared  an 
undue  influence  of  the  continental  powers  at  Peking,  threaten- 
ing dismemberment.  A  great  work  was  at  the  same  time  being 
accomplished  in  opening  the  Nile,  and  in  bringing  Khartoum 
and  the  Soudan  within  the  sphere  of  European  influence.  Thus 
with  a  policy  changed  from  one  of  selfishness  and  restrictions, 
England  has  come  to  the  front  as  the  world's  civilizer,  now  not 
disdaining  the  cooperation  of  the  United  States. 

The  evil  eye  of  Europe  has  been  fastened  on  China  during 
the  year  Ninety-eight, — the  eyes  of  the  nations  on  China  and 
on  each  other,  watching  and  waiting,  ready  upon  any  shadow 
of  excuse,  as  a  stolen  boat  or  a  murdered  missionary,  to  pounce 
upon  the  prey,  each  taking  care  meanwhile  that  the  others  get 
no  more  than  their  share.  Already  have  gone  the  Coast  Prov- 
ince and  most  of  Manchuria,  Formosa,  and  the  suzerainty  of 
Korea,  quickly  followed  by  Port  Arthur  and  Wei-hai-wei,  while 
France  now  wants  Yunnan  and  extension  from  Shanghai, 
and  as  much  more  as  she  can  get.  For  three  months  the  king 
asserted  his  authority,  and  issued  edicts  which  gave  hopes  of 
political  reform,  but,  suppressed  by  the  empress  dowager,  his 
efforts  failed.  Japan  continued  her  course  of  progression  with 
an  eye  on  Korea,  narrowly  watched  by  the  Eussians,  who 
propose  to  dismember  China  at  their  convenience  and  for  their 
own  benefit. 

Among  the  important  events  in  the  Far  East  during  1898 
were  the  lease  of  Kiao  Chau  to  the  German  government;  the 
destruction  of  Amboyna,  in  the  Moluccas,  by  an  earthquake; 
the  Chinese  indemnity  paid  for  killing  German  missionaries; 
the  announced  retention  by  Japan  of  Wei-hai-wei,  of  which 
Great  Britain  obtains  leave  from  the  Chinese  government  and 
takes  possession;  negotiation  of  Chinese  loan  of  $80,000,000 
by  European  financiers;  the  lease  of  Port  Arthur  and  territory 
to  Eussia  by  China,  and  the  protest  by  the  British  ambassador; 
the  burning  of  the  American  mission  at  Tongchow  by  a  Chi- 
nese mob;  the  independence  of  Korea  pledged  by  Eussia  and 
Japan;  the  gathering  of  a  Eussian  fleet  at  Port  Arthur  and 
British  ships  at  Wei-hai-wei  prepared  for  battle;  the  authori- 


THE    YEAR   OF   NINETY-EIGHT  27 

zation  by  the  French  government  of  a  loan  of  270,000,000 
francs  for  building  railways  in  Tonking  and  Anam;  the  im- 
perial edict  at  Peking,  and  abduction  of  the  emperor;  and 
the  fire  at  Hankau,  on  the  Yangtse,  which  laid  in  ashes  a  mile 
square  of  the  city,  attended  with  great  loss  of  life.  The  British 
consul  at  Tientsin  was  notified  that  the  shore  frontage  recently 
opened  at  Port  Ching-wan-tao  was  reserved  for  a  Chinese  min- 
ing company,  whereat  the  British  legation  protested. 

As  to  the  condition  of  China,  whether  living  or  dying,  doc- 
tors disagree.  Old  in  her  civilization,  such  as  it  is,  during 
the  past  three  thousand  years  there  has  been  but  little  change. 
Never  having  risen  high,  she  cannot  greatly  decline.  If  age 
tends  to  respectability  China  is  first  among  nations.  Like  the 
aged  and  respectable  elsewhere,  she  clings  to  her  old  customs. 
She  is  not  only  of  greater  age,  but  greater  in  numbers  than 
any  other  people.  The  trouble  is  that  in  this  instance  num- 
bers do  not  add  strength,  but  rather  weakness;  else  Chinamen 
would  visit  Australia  and  America  without  an  invitation.  The 
powers  say,  "  There  is  too  much  of  her;  let  us  make  her  less. 
There  is  not  enough  of  us;  let  us  make  ourselves  more.  So 
we  both  will  be  benefited,  and  God  shall  have  the  glory." 
Upon  a  new  hypothesis  the  nations  of  the  earth  become  di- 
vided into  two  parts,  those  which  are  living  and  those  which 
are  dying.  The  question  of  survival  becomes  paramount 
among  all  kingdoms  and  commonwealths,  which  are  to  live 
and  which  are  to  die  and  be  devoured  by  the  others.  To  live 
there  must  be  food  and  light  and  air,  which  imply  land,  which 
in  turn  implies  war,  conquest,  subjugation,  extermination. 
Africa  in  parts  is  badly  decayed,  notably  the  Mohammedan 
parts;  elsewhere  the  naked  savages,  never  having  been  born 
or  baptized  into  civilization,  cannot  be  placed  in  the  category 
of  dying  nations;  but  are  only  fit  for  extermination — or  Amer- 
ican citizenship.  But  when  all  is  said  we  may  safely  conclude 
that  the  year  marks  a  change  for  the  better  in  the  affairs  of 
China,  more  especially  in  the  voluntary  opening  to  the  world 
the  interior  by  decree  of  the  emperor,  and  the  granting  of 
important  concessions  to  foreigners. 

In  the  year  Ninety-eight  began  that  fusion  of  West  and 
East  which  united  forever  the  ends  of  the  earth,  with  the 
Pacific  as  the  central  scene  of  coming  development,  a  fusion 
no  less  of  culture  than  of  commerce,  with  the  world-balancing 


28  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

potentialities  transferred  from  the  eastern  to  the  western 
hemisphere. 

At  a  time  when  the  nation  was  not  overburdened  with  great 
men,  either  in  congress  or  out  of  congress,  the  year  of  Ninety- 
eight  developed  the  fact  that  the  United  States  government 
had  at  the  helm  a  man  to  be  trusted.  There  was  patriotism 
in  the  war,  and  also  politics;  the  patriots  were  among  the 
people  and  the  politicians  were  in  Washington.  The  former 
considered  the  interests  of  the  country  before  their  own;  the 
latter  served  themselves  first  and  their  country  afterward. 
Doubtless  in  all  his  conduct  President  McKinley  had  in  view 
his  own  reelection;  it  is  the  fault  of  a  republican  form  of 
government  that  patriots  have  ever  to  consider  place.  Yet 
the  policy  of  the  president  seemed  for  the  most  part  to  pro- 
mote the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  nation.  He  seemed  actuated 
throughout  by  a  desire  to  do  the  will  of  the  people  whom  he 
represented,  rather  than  indulge  in  the  exercise  of  his  indi- 
vidual opinion.  And  so  far  as  human  intelligence  and  human 
foresight  could  discern  he  pursued  a  wise  and  humane  policy, 
which  found  response  in  the  hearts  of  true  Americans,  and 
raised  the  nation  in  honor  and  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
That  he  labored  under  the  incubus  of  American  politics,  and 
was  not  altogether  free  from  the  charge  of  favoritism,  demon- 
strates all  the  more  clearly  the  quality  of  statesmanship  called 
in  force  by  the  emergency.  The  highest  tribute  that  words 
can  pay  him  is  that  in  his  conduct  of  the  war  he  proved  himself 
an  able  and  an  honest  man. 

In  the  civil  war  President  McKinley  had  played  his  part, 
but  his  experience  as  a  soldier  had  not  been  conspicuous.  In 
military  matters  however  he  exercised  the  same  practical  com- 
mon sense  which  he  displayed  in  other  affairs.  Now  he  was 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  not  in  name  only 
but  in  reality.  Upon  his  own  judgment  in  a  great  measure 
he  directed  fleets  and  formulated  general  plans  for  army  move- 
ments. The  order  to  Dewey  to  capture  the  Manila  squadron 
was  written  and  sent  by  the  president  against  the  advice  of 
his  cabinet.  The  fate  of  nations  was  thus  determined  by  the 
stroke  of  his  pen.  He  forbade  a  summer  campaign  to  Havana 
with  its  needless  sacrifice  of  life,  but  he  humanely  pressed  to 
an  issue  affairs  at  Santiago  which  ended  the  war.  Proposals 


THE    YEAR   OF   NINETY-EIGHT  29 

of  peace  the  president  always  gladly  welcomed,  but  he  made 
it  plain  that  the  legitimate  results  of  the  war  must  accrue 
to  his  government.  He  would  be  fair  and  moderate  in  his 
demands,  but  inflexible  in  their  fulfilment.  His  financial  pol- 
icy was  no  less  marked  than  his  success  in  military  and  naval 
affairs.  When  those  of  the  preceding  administration  who  had 
approved  of  a  brokerage  of  $9,000,000  for  securing  a  govern- 
ment loan  of  $62,000,000  at  four  per  cent  opposed  the  fiscal 
measures  of  the  president,  he  passed  by  the  intermediaries  and 
offered  direct  to  the  people  a  loan  of  $200,000,000  at  three  per 
cent,  which  was  instantly  taken  six  and  a  half  times  over. 

In  every  great  event  of  the  administration,  in  every  great 
event  of  the  war,  the  president  rose  to  meet  the  emergency 
with  coolness  and  sagacity.  He  would  not  be  hurried  into 
impolitic  measures.  Naturally  conservative,  he  cautiously  felt 
his  way  both  in  going  to  war  and  in  the  subsequent  settlement. 
Before  declaring  war,  he  must  know  that  the  people  wanted 
war,  and  that  there  was  no  other  way  out  of  the  difficulty. 
He  restrained  congress,  whose  members  were  not  always  cool, 
dignified,  and  consistent,  from  taking  the  final  step  as  long 
as  possible;  but  war  once  declared,  he  prosecuted  it  with  vigor. 
The  war  over,  not  knowing  what  the  nation  and  the  world 
would  adjudge  a  fair  settlement,  he  waited  for  a  consensus 
of  opinion.  Instead  of  stating  plainly  in  the  protocol,  as  many 
thought  he  should  have  done,  and  so  perhaps  have  brought 
upon  himself  and  the  nation  the  charge  of  unfair  demands, 
and  an  inordinate  grasping  for  spoils,  he  wisely  left  the  ques- 
tions of  the  Philippines  to  be  settled  later,  when  the  people 
of  the  United  States  and  fair-minded  men  abroad  should  under 
calm  consideration  have  reached  reasonable  conclusions. 

At  the  Omaha  exposition,  on  the  12th  of  October,  President 
McKinley  said:  "In  fighting  for  humanity's  sake  we  have 
been  signally  blessed.  We  did  not  seek  war.  To  avoid  it,  if 
this  could  be  done  in  justice  and  honor  to  the  rights  of  our 
neighbors  and  ourselves,  was  our  constant  prayer.  The  war 
was  not  more  invited  by  us  than  were  the  questions  which 
are  laid  at  our  door  by  its  results.  Now  as  then  we  will  do 
our  duty.  The  problems  will  not  be  solved  in  a  day.  Patience 
will  be  required,  patience  combined  with  sincerity  of  purpose 
and  unshaken  resolution  to  do  right,  seeking  only  the  highest 


30  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

good  of  the  nation  and  recognizing  no  other  obligation,  pursu- 
ing no  other  path,  but  that  of  duty.  Right  action  follows 
every  right  purpose.  We  may  not  at  all  times  be  able  to  divine 
the  future,  the  way  may  not  always  seem  clear,  but  if  our  aims 
are  high  and  unselfish,  somehow  and  in  some  way  the  right 
end  will  be  reached.  The  genius  of  the  nation,  its  freedom, 
its  humanity,  its  courage,  its  justice,  favored  by  divine  provi- 
dence, will  make  it  equal  to  every  task  and  the  master  of  every 
emergency/' 

Abroad  he  won  the  highest  respect.  Said  Prince  Bismarck, 
"  McKinley  has  shown  superior  statesmanship  by  calming 
public  sentiment.  The  exaltation  of  the  American  mind  con- 
cerning Cuba  is  not  quite  understood  in  Europe.  The  Spanish 
point  of  view  is  mediaeval.  Spain's  atrocities  in  Cuba,  her  mis- 
government  at  home,  and  her  treatment  of  captives  in  Mont- 
juich  fortress  are  fresh  in  our  recollection.  Spain  is  on  the 
verge  of  bankruptcy.  She  cannot  rely  on  any  support,  except 
possibly  from  France  or  Italy.  We  Germans  sympathize  with 
the  grievances  of  the  Cuban  insurgents." 

And  thus  the  London  Times  of  August  15th.  "  If  foreign 
observers  might  presume  to  have  an  opinion  upon  his  conduct, 
it  would  probably  be  that  President  McKinley  has  kept  his 
finger  constantly  upon  the  national  pulse,  and  has  known  how 
to  stimulate  and  direct  national  thought  without  too  markedly 
outrunning  its  movement.  Everything  has  been  done  in  the 
open,  every  move  has  been  discussed  as  a  possibility  all  over 
the  United  States  before  the  government  was  irrevocably  com- 
mitted one  way  or  the  other,  and  the  result  of  that  cautious, 
tentative  policy  is  that  where  he  stands  at  this  moment  the 
president  has  the  whole  American  people  behind  his  back. 
We  do  not  know  that  there  can  be  any  higher  statesmanship 
for  a  president  governing  under  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  noteworthy  that  while  the  Spaniards,  who  are 
usually  regarded  as  chivalrous,  romantic,  and  medieval,  have 
turned  first  to  the  financial  aspect  of  the  situation,  the  Ameri- 
cans, who  are  usually  supposed  to  be  intensely  patriotic,  have 
as  yet  hardly  given  a  thought  to  the  financial  or  economic 
side  of  the  question.  What  occupies  the  American  people  at 
this  moment  is  not  the  cost  of  the  war,  the  value  of  their 
acquisitions,  or  the  balance  of  profit  and  loss  account,  but  the 


THE    YEAR   OF    NINETY-EIGHT  31 

moral  result  of  the  struggle  and  the  nature  of  the  ideas  which 
it  stimulates." 

The  London  Spectator  gives  a  eulogy  of  the  "  splendid  and 
unexpected  manner  in  which  Mr.  McKinley  has  risen  to  the 
requirements  of  a  high  and  difficult  position.  The  president 
has  developed  latent  talents  showing  him  the  possessor  of 
many  of  Lincoln's  great  qualities.  It  would  be  remarkable 
if  for  the  second  time  in  a  generation  the  American  system 
of  really  an  elective  monarchy  proves  itself  a  strong  system 
for  dealing  with  a  dangerous  crisis.  Europe  may  have  been 
hasty  in  rejecting  the  very  idea  of  an  elective  monarchy  as 
fatal  alike  to  stability  and  strength." 

The  war  with  Spain  was  not  of  the  president's  seeking. 
From  a  long  line  of  predecessors  he  received  the  unsavory  leg- 
acy of  the  Cuban  question.  The  issue  was  forced  upon  him; 
it  was  his  opportunity  as  well  as  his  obligation,  and  he  met 
the  issues  with  the  courage  of  his  convictions.  In  diplomacy, 
he  was  direct,  sincere,  and  wise,  and  whether  from  foresight 
or  good  fortune  he  was  remarkably  successful.  He  did  not 
enter  office  in  1896  at  the  end  of  a  brilliant  career,  but  as 
an  efficient  and  successful  American  statesman;  and  when  as 
time  passed  and  grave  issues  had  to  be  met  his  versatility  of 
talents  was  a  surprise.  When  the  nation  trembled  with  pas- 
sion, his  wise  words  and  good  politics  brought  it  to  reason. 
And  this  was  the  more  conspicuous  because  he  had  not  always 
about  him  the  best  of  advisers;  among  his  ministers  were  those 
who  did  not  hesitate  to  place  in  positions  of  high  trust  in- 
competent favorites  instead  of  reliable  officers  of  tried  ability. 
As  with  Lincoln  in  the  civil  war,  while  arming  for  the  conflict 
McKinley's  best  efforts  were  called  forth  to  avert  dissension 
at  home  and  prevent  interference  from  abroad.  Any  impru- 
dence might  lead  to  general  conflict  with  the  powers  of  Europe 
resulting  in  humiliation  and  disaster.  Nothing  would  be  lost 
but  everything  gained  by  moderation.  One  serious  mistake 
would  result  in  greater  harm  than  many  delays.  Give  the 
people  time  to  consider  what  they  want.  Give  Europe  time 
to  become  convinced  of  our  inflexibility. of  purpose  and  purity 
of  intentions,  and  that  it  is  principle,  not  passion,  that  governs 
us.  Give  Spain  time  to  realize  the  dire  retribution  which 
awaits  her  if  she  persists  in  her  course  of  evil  doing.  James 


32  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

K.  Polk  did  not  hesitate  to  force  upon  the  country  an  unjust 
war  with  Mexico  for  more  slave  territory.  But  McKinley 
paused  before  the  terrible  arbitrament  of  war,  as  Washington 
paused  on  the  brink  of  independence,  and  as  Lincoln  paused 
before  committing  himself  to  the  civil  conflict  as  well  as  in 
the  emancipation  measure.  And  William  McKinley,  like  Wash- 
ington and  Lincoln,  will  always  be  remembered  by  a  grateful 
country  as  one  of  its  few  great  presidents. 


CHAPTER  III 

EUBOPEAN   BARBARISM   IN   AMERICA 

EUROPE  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  barbaric;  or,  if  civil- 
ized, it  was  a  civilization  as  different  from  the  culture  and 
refinement  of  to-day  as  the  civilization  of  the  Roman  differed 
from  the  barbarism  of  the  German. 

When  Spain  went  forth  to  conquer  the  New  World  four 
hundred  years  ago,  she  was  much  the  same  as  other  nations 
of  Christendom  in  civility  and  humanity,  much  the  same  in 
cruelty  and  barbarity.  In  wealth  and  power  she  was  equal 
to  any,  if  not  indeed  superior  to  all.  Later,  some  of  them 
changed  for  the  better,  dropping  the  worst  of  their  mediaeval 
manners,  and  emerging  from  under  the  denser  clouds  of  ig- 
norance and  superstition.  But  while  other  nations  advanced, 
Spain  remained  stationary,  and  in  some  respects  retrograded, 
still  guided  by  the  old  spirit  which  drove  out  Mohammedans, 
killed  Jews,  and  proselyted  at  the  point  of  the  sword.  Hence 
we  can  understand  how  it  was  that  Weyler's  methods  in  Cuba 
were  so  like  those  of  Cortes  in  Mexico  and  Pizarro  in  Peru. 

In  the  administration  of  the  Indies.  New  World  affairs  were 
at  first  divided  into  two  great  governments,  one  under  the 
viceroy  of  New  Spain  and  the  other  under  the  viceroy  of  Peru. 
Later  a  third  viceroyalty  was  established  at  Santa  Fe  de 
Bogota,  with  jurisdiction  over  the  kingdom  of  Tierra  Firme, 
and  the  provinces  of  Quito  and  Rio  de  la  Plata.  In  the 
islands,  and  in  the  smaller  or  more  distant  provinces,  the  chief 
ruler  might  be  a  governor,  or  captain-general,  or  governor- 
general,  the  high  ecclesiastic  having  always  much  to  say  about* 
matters,  and  the  military  sometimes  acquiring  undue  influence. 
Discovery  and  conquest  were  made  for  the  king,  from  whom 
emanated  all  grants,  and  to  whom  reverted  all  tenures.  All 
America,  save  Portugal's  portion,  was  the  property  of  the 
crown.  The  souls  of  the  inhabitants  were  the  property  of 

33 


34  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

the  church,  which  was  subordinate  to  the  sovereigns,  the  pope 
being  nominally  master.  What  the  pope  gave  to  Spain  on 
behalf  of  his  maker  was  not  to  the  Spanish  people,  but  to 
the  Spanish  sovereigns.  Governors,  magistrates,  and  all  other, 
officials,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  were  created  and  deposed  at 
pleasure  by  the  king.  To  the  colonist  belonged  no  rights 
or  privileges  apart  from  the  crown.  Municipalities  might  elect 
their  own  officials,  but  subject  always  to  the  approval  of  the 
crown.  There  was  significance  in  the  fact  that  the  king  of 
Spain  had  himself  called  also  king  of  the  Indies,  indicating 
thereby  that  his  transatlantic  possessions  were  provinces,  and 
integral  parts  of  the  crown  domain,  rather  than  colonies  in 
the  ordinary  sense,  with  some  sort  of  individuality  and  inde- 
pendence. The  cedulas  reales,  by  which  the  royal  pleasure 
was  expressed,  formed  in  reality  the  first  legislative  code  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  Indies,  embodied  in  the  Recopilacion  de  las 
Indias,  back  of  which  was  that  of  Castile,  and  Las  Siete  Par- 
tidas,  or  the  common  law  of  Spain.  After  the  establishment 
of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  legislative  power  vested  in  that 
body  under  the  king,  and  executive  power  in  the  captains- 
general  and  viceroys  under  the  king. 

Finance,  also,  was  based  upon  the  theory  that  the  king  was 
owner  of  the  land.  Some  of  the  natives  paid  a  capitation  tax; 
some  a  primicias,  or  first  fruits  tax;  others  gave  in  the  aggre- 
gate eighteen  months'  service  in  the  mines  at  various  times 
between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  fifty  years.  The  church  took 
a  tenth  of  the  proceeds  of  agriculture,  and  after  this  tax  on 
the  raw  material,  the  prepared  article,  as  indigo,  sugar,  and 
cochineal,  paid  another  tax.  Then  there  were  the  customs 
duties  on  articles  of  commerce,  the  alcabala,  or  vendor's  duty, 
and  from  the  product  of  the  mines  the  king's  fifth  and  other 
royalties.  Tobacco  salt  and  cards  were  crown  monopolies. 
Many  of  the  offices  of  the  colonies  were  sold  by  auction  to 
the  highest  bidder,  the  purchaser's  profit  to  be  ground  out  of 
the  colonists.  After  manufactures  had  been  driven  from  the 
'Peninsula,  goods  from  abroad  must  be  entered  at  Cadiz  and 
pay  a  heavy  duty;  on  leaving  Spain  another  duty;  still  an- 
other on  entering  Mexico  or  Peru;  after  that  bribes,  commis- 
sions, notary  fees,  and  the  seller's  profit  made  the  price  to  the 
purchaser  in  the  New  World  three  or  five  times  the  original 
cost. 


EUROPEAN    BARBARISM    IN    AMERICA        35 

Meanwhile  the  sovereigns  of  Spain  as  a  rule  were  not  so 
had  as  their  agents.  They  were  bad  enough,  however,  suspi- 
cious, treacherous,  and  mendacious,  the  kind  of  masters  to 
make  the  worst  of  servants;  but  they  frowned  on  robbery, 
unless  it  were  for  their  benefit;  they  forbade  the  enslavement 
of  the  Indian,  though  they  permitted  the  systems  of  repartimi- 
cntos,  or  partitioning  the  lands  of  the  natives  among  the  con- 
querors and  adventurers,  and  encomiendas,  under  which  the 
natives  of  the  conquered  country,  as  well  as  their  lands,  were 
assigned  to  the  conquerors  and  made  tributary  to  them.  Fine 
distinctions!  The  natives  were  held  with  the  soil  and  must 
work,  but  they  were  not  slaves.  When  the  Indians  fell  ill 
and  died  from  unaccustomed  labor  and  cruel  treatment,  the 
adventurers,  who  would  by  no  means  work  themselves,  began 
to  complain  that  the  Indians  were  willing  to  die  but  they  would 
not  work,  that  without  laborers  their  lands  were  worthless 
and  the  mines  of  no  value,  and  without  returns  the  sovereigns 
might  as  well  throw  away  their  Indies.  Then  the  Portuguese 
and  Spanish, — the  English  and  Dutch  being  not  far  behind 
them, — took  pity  on  the  poor  Indian,  whose  carcass  was  worth 
no  more  than  the  living  body,  and  seeking  to  save  him  sug- 
gested to  their  sovereigns  the  naked  black  men  of  the  African 
jungles,  who  were  not  of  their  fold,  telling  how  they  were 
able  to  endure  severe  labor  under  a  tropical  sun  better  than 
the  native  American;  wherefore  the  humane  rulers  of  Europe 
permitted  their  merchants  and  seamen  to  buy  or  steal  black 
men  from  the  Gold  Coast,  and  bring  them  to  the  Indies,  and 
so  save  their  own  people.  Such  was  the  quality  of  their  kind- 
ness, these  sovereigns,  so  very  like  Weyler's  in  Cuba! 

As  early  as  1503  the  inhabitants  of  the  discovered  islands 
were  declared  free,  but  their  freedom  was  worse  than  slavery, 
the  man's  labor  belonging  to  the  conqueror,  at  a  wage  of  the 
governor's  naming,  but  without  property  in  the  man,  and 
hence  indifferent  as  to  his  welfare.  Such  was  the  freedom 
Spain  gave  her  distant  subjects  from  the  first,  the  sovereigns 
not  always  meaning  to  be  cruel,  much  of  the  injustice  practised 
being  due  to  infamous  agents.  As  in  the  days  of  Isabella  of 
Castile,  who  censured  the  Genoese  for  enslaving  Indians,  so 
the  present  Isabel  of  Spain,  let  us  hope,  were  she  free  to  act, 
would  scarcely  sanction  the  work  of  her  governor-generals  done 
in  Cuba  in  her  name. 


36  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

And  so  it  was  from  first  to  last,  the  colonists  of  Spain  were 
subject  alone  to  the  kings  of  Spain.  All  colonial  possessions 
were  dependencies  of  the  crown;  all  laws  and  regulations  were 
made  and  administered  by  the  crown,  by  or  through  the  min- 
ions or  ministers  of  the  crown.  These  possessions  were  held 
by  the  Spanish  sovereigns  purely  for  profit.  Of  the  natives, 
both  body  and  soul,  merchandise  was  made,  the  former  being 
of  the  treasures  of  this  world,  and  the  latter  of  the  world  to 
come.  Obedience  was  the  first  duty  of  the  subject,  obedience 
first  as  to  what  he  should  do,  and  then  as  to  what 'he  should 
believe. 

Yet  it  is  true,  as  I  have  said,  that  the  rulers  of  Spain  have 
always  been  more  humane  than  their  agents  in  the  treatment 
of  the  Indians,  more  just  in  the  treatment  of  colonists.  At 
a  distance  from  the  king  his  representatives  were  supreme, 
the  colonists  being  subject  to  the  ignorance,  fanaticism,  or 
caprice  of  the  viceroy,  governor,  or  general.  It  was  no  easy 
matter  for  royalty,  always  arbitrary  and  given  to  espionage, 
to  find  willing  and  faithful  instruments  to  do  its  bidding  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  strong  arm  and  discerning  eye.  Petty 
rulers  did  much  as  they  pleased,  concocting  new  villanies  to 
cover  old  ones,  and  trusting  to  their  cunning  or  good  fortune 
to  carry  them  through  at  the  judgment  day.  Hence,  in  the 
main  they  exercised  their  own  pleasure,  and  indulged  in  the 
sweets  of  despotic  power,  whether  it  had  been  delegated  to  them 
or  not.  And  throughout  the  entire  viceregal  period,  these 
imitations  of  royalty,  in  common  with  almost  all  New  World 
officials,  were  Spaniards  born  in  Spain,  beside  whom,  as  is 
well  known,  Spaniards  born  in  America  were  inferior  beings, 
politically  and  socially.  If,  then,  such  have  been  the  modes 
of  thought  and  conduct  for  centuries  among  themselves,  what 
could  be  expected  in  their  intercourse  with  weak  and  defense- 
less colonists  whom  they  regarded  as  little  better  than  brutes? 

The  better  class  of  the  inhabitants  of  Cuba  are  mostly  of 
Spanish  origin,  with  intermixtures  of  Indian  and  negro;  some 
of  them  are  of  pure  European  blood.  There  were  before  the 
American  war  with  Spain  two  political  parties,  Spaniards  and 
Cubans  loyal  to  Spain,  and  Cubans  mulattoes  and  negroes  of 
the  insurgent  class.  Spanish  military  rulers  in  Cuba  seemed 
to  have  but  little  respect  for  their  own  government,  and  as  in 
the  olden  time  they  did  much  as  they  pleased.  They  mani- 


EUKOPEAN    BARBARISM    IN    AMERICA        37 

fested  little  inclination  to  relieve  suffering  or  redress  griev- 
ances. They  were  by  nature  and  tradition  unjust,  untruthful, 
and  merciless. 

That  the  machinery  set  in  motion  by  the  ministers  of  Charles 
V  should  have  continued  running  for  more  than  three  hun- 
dred years,  shows  either  that  it  was  well  adapted  for  the  pur- 
pose or  that  the  wear  upon  it  was  light.  That  Spain's  rule 
has  continued  so  long  shows  that  there  was  present  a  vital  force, 
the  force  which  underlies  tyranny  and  bigotry,  the  force  of 
ignorance  and  fear;  that  she  lost  her  rule  shows  that  ignorance 
and  fear  are  losing  their  hold  on  humanity,  and  that  the  des- 
tinies of  nations  are  no  longer  subject  to  civil  and  religious 
coercion. 

Since  1823,  when  a  large  part  of  Spanish  America  threw 
off  the  yoke  of  Spain,  and  when  certain  Cubans  in  Mexico  had 
appealed  in  vain  to  the  embryo  republic  to  lend  1,500  men 
with  Santa  Anna  as  leader  to  help  them  likewise  achieve  in- 
dependence, and  Bolivar  had  nearly  gone  to  their  assistance, 
the  island  had  been  an  object  of  peculiar  consideration  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  Not  that  its  possession  was  in 
any  wise  coveted;  there  were  lands  enough  contiguous  lacking 
inhabitants,  and  untried  issues  at  home  sufficient  to  give  full 
occupation  to  the  active  American  mind.  But  industrially 
and  politically  Cuba  was  full  of  interest.  Her  position  and 
products,  no  less  than  the  people  and  their  government,  could 
not  fail  to  command  the  attention  of  so  near  and  observant 
a  neighbor. 

And  for  the  most  part  until  a  recent  period  the  relations 
between  the  United  States  and  Spain  have  been  friendly.  The 
eighteenth  century  conflicts  of  England  France  and  Spain, 
transferred  across  the  Atlantic,  and  resulting  in  the  expulsion 
of  the  French  from  North  America,  and  the  acquisition  by 
the  United  States  of  Florida,  the  north  shore  of  the  Mexican 
gulf,  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  the  great  Northwest,  were 
well-nigh  forgotten,  and  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  pre- 
diction that  under  some  pretext  the  island  would  eventually 
be  taken  from  Spain.  Filibustering  was  always  promptly  sup- 
pressed, and  talk  of  acquisition  or  annexation  frowned  upon; 
and  while  it  was  understood  that  the  United  States  did  not 
want  Cuba,  it  was  equally  well  understood  that  the  American 
government  would  never  permit  any  other  power,  particularly 

427622 


38  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

any  European  power  except  Spain,  to  own  or  control  the  island. 
Jefferson  in  1795,  Clay  in  1825,  Van  Buren  in  1840,  and  Fish 
in  1871,  all  declared  that  the  United  States  had  no  designs 
on  the  political  condition,  or  on  the  conquest  of  Cuba,  and 
on  an  attempt  from  any  source  to  wrest  the  territory  from 
Spain,  the  United  States  would  interfere  to  prevent  it.  On 
the  other  hand  John  Quincy  Adams,  President  Monroe,  and 
Daniel  Webster  were  not  averse  to  annexation  under  certain 
conditions,  but  always  with  the  sanction  of  Spain,  with  which 
power  it  was  desirable  that  friendly  relations  should  continue. 
One  cause  of  the  hesitancy  of  the  United  States  to  meddle  in 
Cuban  affairs  was  the  possible  effect  on  the  question  of  slavery. 
On  this  account  alone  many  preferred  having  nothing  to  do 
with  Cuba;  because  some  desired  the  further  acquisition  of 
slave  territory  and  influence,  while  others  were  strenuously 
opposed  to  the  extension  of  the  evil  under  the  protection  of 
the  United  States  laws.  Therefore  so  long  as  Cuba  held  Afri- 
cans as  slaves,  it  would  have  been  difficult  for  her  to  have 
formed  any  close  political  alliance  with  the  United  States. 

But  the  Cubans  themselves  felt  that  they  had  something  to 
say  about  it,  that  they  should  have  some  voice  in  the  political 
disposition  of  their  island  and  its  people.  They  had  seen  the 
two  Americas,  nearly  all  of  them,  from  the  arctic  to  the  ant- 
arctic, become  practically  free;  for  though  Canada  and  Brazil 
were  not  nominally  independent  states,  they  were  so  in  reality. 
All  enjoyed  to  the  full  extent  the  blessings  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty;  they  alone,  or  nearly  so,  of  all  this  vast  New 
World,  lay  under  the  curse  of  European  barbarism,  but  slightly 
better  than  mediaeval  despotism.  They  saw  the  English  col- 
onies, and  Mexico,  and  all  Spanish  South  America,  free,  and 
they  determined  that  Cuba  should  be  free.  True,  their  grand 
opportunity  they  had  permitted  to  pass  by,  owing  largely  to 
the  influence  of  the  United  States,  whose  slaveholders  objected 
to  the  proximity  of  free  negroes,  in  case  they  were  freed,  while 
others  made  objections  to  the  further  extension  of  slavery 
under  the  banner  of  free  institutions.  These  questions,  how- 
ever, the  average  Cuban  did  not  then  understand.  'He  simply 
felt  his  fetters,  and  sought  release  from  them. 

Spain  made  the  same  mistake  at  this  juncture  that  England 
had  made  with  regard  to  her  American  colonies;  she  tight- 
ened her  hold  on  them  when  she  should  have  loosened  it. 


EUEOPEAN    BARBARISM    IN    AMERICA        39 

Instead  of  winning  the  good  will  of  the  colonists  by  kind  and 
liberal  measures,  she  was  determined  to  rule  by  coercion.  To 
prevent  the  loss  of  Cuba,  as  all  the  colonies  of  the  mainland 
had  been  lost,  extraordinary  powers  were  given  to  the  rulers, 
the  exercise  of  which  practically  placed  the  island  under  mili- 
tary law,  while  representatives  were  excluded  from  the  cortes. 

Insurrections  broke  out  from  time  to  time,  some  of  them 
dignified  by  the  name  of  revolutions.  There  was  one  in  1829, 
another  struggle  in  1844,  and  others  during  the  period  from 
1847  to  1868.  In  the  year  last  named  began  what  may  be 
called  the  first  general  and  united  uprising  of  Cuba  for  in- 
dependence. The  revolution  of  1868  was  brought  on  by  the 
insurgent  leaders  Cespedes,  Marmol,  and  Garcia,  and  resulted 
in  a  ten  years'  war,  which  left  the  island  in  a  deplorable  con- 
dition. It  was  at  a  time  when  Spain  was  passing  through  new 
and  strange  experiences,  as  civil  war,  a  Bourbon  monarchy, 
provisional  government,  and  then  after  kingdom  and  republic, 
back  to  the  house  of  Bourbon  again.  It  was  a  brutal  contest, 
this  between  the  colony  and  the  mother  country,  in  which 
dungeons  weve  filled,  students  wantonly  shot  on  mere  suspi- 
cion of  sympathy  with  rebels,  while  commerce  was  nearly  ex- 
terminated and  many  industries  totally  destroyed.  Among 
other  episodes,  brought  to  mind  with  some  significance  by 
the  Maine  infamy,  was  the  capture  at  sea  by  a  Spanish  warship 
of  the  steamer  Virginius,  registered  as  an  American  vessel 
of  war  at  New  York,  and  which  was  taken  to  Cuba,  and  fifty 
of  her  officers  and  seamen  shot.  As  it  was  shown  that  the 
Spanish  government  after  making  every  effort  were  powerless 
to  prevent  the  crime,  and  that  the  Virginius  obtained  her 
American  register  by  fraud,  on  the  payment  of  indemnity,  the 
case  was  dismissed.  This  attempt  at  independence  like  all 
the  rest  failed,  although  the  slaves  were  made  free.  Then 
tyranny  fell  back  into  the  old  groove. 

Seventeen  years  of  peace  followed  these  ten  years  of  war, 
when  on<?e  more  the  burden  laid  on  the  colonists  by  their  be- 
nignant mother,  amid  scores  of  broken  promises,  became  too 
heavy  to  bear,  avid  again  they  revolted.  And  now  the  rebel 
leaders  were  not  only  resolved  never  to  treat  with  Spain  for 
anything  less  than  absolute  freedom, but  they  were  determined, 
each  for  himself,  that  none  of  the  others  should  do  so.  There- 
fore when  they  feared  that  Domingo  Mendez  Capote,  who  had 


40  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

been  elected  president  of  the  Cuban  republic  in  September, 
might  be  too  easily  influenced  by  the  enemy,  they  put  him 
aside  in  December,  and  elected  in  his  place  Bartolome  Masso, 
who  had  raised  the  first  band  of  volunteers  in  the  insurrection 
of  1868.  Esperanza,  in  the  Cubita  hills,  was  now  the  rebel 
capital,  and  in  January  the  town  was  captured  by  the  Span- 
iards, and  burned,  the  government  and  its  archives,  if  any 
there  were,  vanishing.  In  February,  1895,  Juan  Gomez  took 
the  field  near  Matanzas,  Bartolome  Masso  at  Manzanillo,  and 
Jesus  Rabi  at  Santiago,  and  Cuba's  last  rebellion  from  Spain 
was  begun.  There  were  then  18,000  Spanish  troops  in  the 
island.  Captain-general  Emilio  Calleja  immediately  cabled  to 
Madrid  for  reinforcements,  which  came  in  form  of  12,000  men 
under  General  Martinez  Campos,  who  on  landing  accepted  Cal- 
leja's  resignation.  Jose  Marti  assumed  the  leadership  of  the 
insurgent  government,  with  Maximo  Gomez  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army  of  liberation.  The  junta  thus  organized  by 
Marti  were  the  friends  of  Cuba  libre,  called  separatists,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  home  rulers,  or  autonomists.  Soon  350 
revolutionary  clubs,  with  a  membership  of  50,000,  gave  the 
junta  their  moral  and  financial  support.  Some  of  them  were 
true  patriots.  One  of  their  number,  Tomas  Estrada  Palma, 
suffered  loss  of  fortune  and  seven  years'  imprisonment,  when 
with  a  word,  by  renouncing  his  loyalty  to  Cuba,  he  might  have 
been  free  and  rich.  Marti  himself  soon  gave  his  life  to  the 
cause  in  attempting  to  break  through  the  enemy's  cordon  which 
had  been  thrown  round  him. 

Organizing  a  government  with  Salvador  Cisneros  Betan- 
court,  marquis  of  Santa  Lucia,  as  president  from  1895  to  1897, 
Bartolome  Masso  filling  the  office  for  the  term  following,  the 
insurgents  entered  upon  a  guerilla  warfare  which  ended  only 
with  the  capitulation  of  Santiago  in  1898.  Gomez  was  a  de- 
voted commander,  able  and  tenacious.  His  tactics  were  inces- 
sant attacks  but  no  pitched  battles.  In  the  United  States  little 
attention  was  given  to  the  outbreak  at  first,  all  Spanish  Amer- 
ica being  usually  in  a  chronic  state  of  revolution;  but  it  be- 
came manifest  in  time  that  this  uprising  was  different  from 
any  which  had  preceded  it,  and  different  from  the  usual  out- 
break, being  well  planned  and  carried  out  with  promptness 
and  efficiency.  Attempts  were  frequently  made  to  convey  arms 
and  supplies  to  the  insurgents  from  the  United  States,  but 


EUROPEAN    BARBARISM   IN   AMERICA        41 

they  were  for  the  most  part  frustrated  by  the  Washington  gov- 
ernment. The  insurgents  won  a  decisive  victory  at  Bayamo, 
July  13,  1895,  the  most  important  battle  of  the  war. 

Campos  failed  in  his  efforts  and  resigned.  He  was  succeeded 
by  General  Valeriano  Weyler,  the  wickedest  man  in  Spain,  who 
had  held  office  in  the  Philippines,  there  gaining  wealth  by 
extortions.  A  photograph  taken  on  the  day  of  his  landing 
at  Havana  February  10,  1896,  shows  in  his  features  a  combi- 
nation of  cunning  and  cruelty  difficult  to  surpass.  He  im- 
mediately issued  a  preclamation  attaching  the  death  penalty 
to  fourteen  mostly  trivial  offenses  in  the  way  of  aiding  the 
rebels.  A  savage  warfare  then  set  in  with  horrible  atrocities 
on  both  sides.  Both  sides  killed  envoys  from  the  enemy,  tort- 
ured and  murdered  prisoners,  and  bound  and  imprisoned  sus- 
pects. Spaniards,  or  those  of  Spanish  blood  never  become  so 
civilized  that  they  will  not  under  one  pretense  or  another  rob 
non-combatants  and  kill  prisoners  of  war  whenever  they  desire 
to  do  so.  Even  the  patriot  commander,  Gomez,  not  to  be  out- 
done in  barbarity  by  any  barbarian  from  Spain,  proclaimed 
November  6, 1895,  "  All  plantations  shall  be  totally  destroyed, 
their  sugarcane  and  outbuildings  burned,  and  railroad  con- 
nections destroyed.  All  laborers  who  shall  aid  the  sugar  fac- 
tories shall  be  considered  as  traitors  to  their  country.  All 
who  are  caught  in  the  act  shall  be  shot."  To  these  instructions 
Antonio  Maceo  added  June  9,  1896,  "  Blow  up  trains  and 
bridges  with  dynamite.  Destroy  all  houses  that  may  offer  ref- 
uge or  shelter  to  the  Spanish  troops,  and  all  corn  and  tobacco 
found  deposited  in  your  territory."  These  orders  were  mild 
as  compared  with  many.  Such  was  the  policy  of  the  com- 
batants on  both  sides  throughout  the  war.  As  for  barbarism, 
there  was  little  to  choose  between  them.  And  while  all  this 
was  bad  enough,  it  was  more  especially  the  outrages  committed 
on  non-combatants,  innocent  men  women  and  children,  that 
stirred  the  hearts  of  the  American  people  to  put  forth  a  hand 
in  their  defense,  rather  than  the  brutal  warfare  waged  on  each 
other  by  these  merciless  men  of  Europe  and  America. 

In  a  long  and  hotly  contested  conflict,  extending  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  between  two  such  peoples  as  those  of 
Spain  and  Cuba,  with  wrong  and  oppression  on  one  side  and 
ignorance  and  brutality  on  the  other,  it  was  scarcely  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  nicer  distinctions  of  civilized  warfare  should 


42  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

always  obtain.  Much  might  be  excused,  particularly  when 
those  with  eyes  did  not  care  to  see;  and  much  was  excused. 
But  there  is  a  point  passing  which  humanity  revolts.  There 
is  a  point  in  a  career  of  infamy  and  atrocity  beyond  which  the 
bystander  is  not  expected  to  remain  indifferent  and  inactive, 
putting  away  his  responsibility  under  the  plea  that  it  is  out- 
side of  his  line  of  duty. 

Terrible  as  was  the  situation  in  Cuba,  it  was  not  easy  to 
formulate  a  plan  for  a  solution  of  the  difficulty.  During  two 
administrations  the  authorities  in  Washington  refrained  from 
interfering.  Then  tenderly  congress  touched  the  subject  in  a 
report  of  the  senate  foreign  affairs  committee  of  January  29, 
1896,  conveying  a  resolution  instructing  the  president  to  "  use 
in  a  friendly  spirit  the  good  offices  of  this  government  to  the 
end  that  Spain  shall  be  requested  to  accord  to  the  armies  with 
which  it  is  engaged  in  war  the  rights  of  belligerents."  After 
a  month's  debate  congress  went  so  far  as  to  declare  "  that  the 
friendly  offices  of  the  United  States  should  be  offered  by  the 
president  to  the  Spanish  government  for  the  recognition  of 
the  independence  of  Cuba." 

Weyler  never  took  the  field  in  person,  but  remained  in  Ha- 
vana concocting  schemes  and  levying  blackmail.  One  of  his 
plans,  which  would  have  done  honor  to  Mephistopheles,  was 
to  strip  the  country  of  its  population  and  destroy  all  property 
throughout  the  rural  districts,  farm  houses,  produce,  growing 
crops,  stock,  and  manufactures,  the  haciendas  of  the  rich  and 
the  huts  of  the  poor,  and  concentrate  these  pacificos,  or  peace- 
able people,  in  the  towns,  so  that  the  rebels  would  find  nothing 
on  which  to  subsist  throughout  the  land.  To  this  end  an 
edict  was  issued  on  the  21st  of  October,  to  which  the  queen 
regent  affixed  her  signature,  not  realizing  probably  that  she 
was  thus  consigning  hundreds  of  innocent  victims  to  homeless 
wandering,  lingering  disease,  starvation,  and  death.  As  she 
is  a  woman,  and  the  mother  of  a  boy,  let  us  hope  for  the  sake 
of  humanity  that  she  did  not  know  the  horrible  cruelties  and 
injustice  she  was  inflicting  on  so  many  other  women,  and  so 
many  other  boys,  as  greatly  loved  and  as  free  from  any  guilt 
as  was  her  own. 

In  a  report  to  congress  Secretary-of-state  Olney  said:  "It 
is  officially  reported  that  there  are  in  one  provincial  city  alone 
some  four  thousand  necessitous  refugees  from  the  surrounding 


EUROPEAN    BARBAKISM   IN   AMERICA        43 

country  to  whom  the  municipal  authorities  can  afford  little 
or  no  relief."  The  people  thus  herded  in  the  suburbs  of  the 
cities  were  without  food  and  houseless.  Their  homes  had  been 
destroyed,  their  country  laid  waste,  and,  without  the  succor 
which  alas!  few  of  them  received,  they  must  die. 

An  appeal  was  made  by  the  United  States  secretary  of  state, 
on  the  day  before  Christmas,  for  aid  for  the  suffering  in  Cuba. 
A  central  Cuban  relief  committee  was  organized  with  an  office 
in  New  York,  where  contributions  of  moneys  and  supplies  were 
sent.  Liberal  donations  followed,  which  were  distributed  by 
the  Red  Cross  society.  Before  this  quantities  of  provisions  sent 
from  the  United  States  to  the  starving  Cubans  were  seized 
and  devoured  by  the  Spanish  soldiers,  whose  situation,  ill  fed, 
ill  clothed,  and  ill  paid  as  they  were,  was  in  some  respects 
scarcely  less  pitiable  than  that  of  the  Cubans.  Relief  supplies 
sent  by  charitable  persons  to  the  reconcentrados  in  the  interior 
were  in  like  manner  used  by  the  Spanish  officers  to  feed  them- 
selves and  their  men. 

The  Cubans  under  arms  numbered  not  more  than  35,000  at 
any  time,  while  the  Spaniards  increased  their  forces  to  150,000 
men.  At  the  same  time  the  fact  became  clear  that  as  the  large 
mass  could  never  come  within  reach  of  the  small  one  to  crush 
it,  Spain  would  never  be  able  to  put  down  this  rebellion.  And 
while  Spain  adopted  a  starvation  policy  with  regard  to  the 
people,  the  rebels  retaliated  by  burning  the  sugar  mills  which 
gave  revenue  to  the  Spanish  government,  thereby  cutting  off 
resources  and  adding  to  the  Spanish  debt.  Thus  business  was 
destroyed,  and  among  others  American  citizens  resident  in 
Cuba  suffered  severely.  During  Cleveland's  administration 
several  Americans  had  been  imprisoned  in  Cuba,  but  on  the 
peremptory  demand  of  McKinley  on  his  entering  office  they 
were  released.  Upon  assuming  the  presidency,  Mr.  McKinley 
continued  the  cautious  policy  of  his  predecessor  Grover  Cleve- 
land. But  a  report  of  Consul-general  Lee,  May  17,  1897,  of 
increasing  distress,  and  stating  further  that  among  the  desti- 
tute were  600  or  800  American  citizens,  stirred  the  president 
to  call  an  extra  session  of  congress  and  ask  for  $50,000  for  the 
relief  of  the  suffering  in  Cuba,  which  request  was  granted. 
Stewart  L.  Woodford  was  sent  as  minister  to  Spain,  a  man 
well  fitted  to  bring  about  a  peaceable  solution  of  the  impending 
difficulties  if  possible  to  do  so. 


44 

The  president's  instructions  to  Minister  Woodford  were  that 
he  should  impress  upon  the  Spanish  government  the  sincere 
wish  of  the  United  States  to  lend  its  aid  toward  the  ending 
of  the  war  in  Cuba  by  reaching  a  peaceful  and  lasting  result. 
He  should  say  further  that  at  this  juncture  his  government 
was  constrained  seriously  to  inquire  if  the  time  was  not  ripe 
when  Spain  of  her  own  volition,  moved  by  her  own  interests 
and  every  sentiment  of  humanity,  should  not  put  a  stop  to 
this  destructive  war  and  make  proposals  of  settlement  honor- 
able to  herself  and  just  to  her  Cuban  colony. 

Commenting  upon  these  and  like  dignified,  just,  and  chari- 
table sentiments,  Enrique  Dupuy  de  Lome,  Spanish  minister 
at  Washington,  writes  to  his  friend  Jose  Canalejas  of  President 
McKinlcy:  "Besides  the  natural  and  inevitable  coarseness  with 
which  he  repeats  all  that  the  press  and  public  opinion  of 
Spain  had  said  of  Weyler,  it  shows  once  more  what  McKinley 
is,  weak  and  catering  to  the  rabble,  and  besides  a  low  politi- 
cian." With  which  brave  and  gentlemanly  words  de  Lome 
resigned  his  position  and  departed  from  the  country. 

Upon  the  assassination  of  the  Spanish  premier,  Canovas  del 
Castillo,  on  the  8th  of  August,  Praxedes  Mateo  Sagasta,  came 
into  power.  He  was  born  in  1827,  educated  as  an  engineer, 
entered  the  cortes  in  1854,  and  was  for  twenty  years  leader 
of  the  liberal  party.  Measures  were  at  once  taken  to  forestall 
the  demands  which  the  sagacious  minister  foresaw  were  about 
to  be  made  by  the  United  States  on  behalf  of  humanity  and 
civilization.  A  new  constitution  was  announced  giving  Cuba 
autonomy.  Weyler  was  recalled  and  to  fill  his  place  was  sent 
Ramon  Blanco,  who  revoked  the  reconcentration  order,  and 
opened  prison  doors.  The  world  smiled  benignantly  on  Spain's 
new  policy.  All  evils  were  to  be  abolished  by  a  new  autonomist 
constitution;  but  when  in  November  the  text  was  cabled  to 
Washington,  it  was  found  to  be  ineffectual.  It  was  promul- 
gated as  a  royal  decree  instead  of  emanating  from  the  cortes, 
whose  approval  was  essential  to  its  validity.  Or,  if  approved, 
it  still  left  autocratic  power  with  Spain,  giving  the  colonists 
little  if  any  more  liberty  than  they  had  before.  A  governor- 
general,  appointed  by  the  crown,  was  to  summon,  adjourn,  or 
dissolve  the  parliament,  and  hold  a  veto  over  all  legislation. 
He  was  commander-in-chief  of  the  military  forces,  and  held  at 
his  disposal  all  public  patronage.  These  and  other  like  provi- 


EUROPEAN   BARBARISM   IN   AMERICA        45 

sions,  hedged  about  by  plausible  restrictions,  while  pretending 
much  really  gave  nothing.  Yet  on  the  1st  of  January,  Cap- 
tain-general Blanco  formally  inducted  into  office  a  new  min- 
istry, under  this  constitution,  in  which  were  five  Cubans,  with 
Galvez  as  president. 

The  island  was  now  supposed  to  be  pacified,  and  a  pro- 
gramme of  conciliation  was  sent  to  the  insurgents  for  their 
acceptance,  saying  that  their  military  officers  should  be  recog- 
nized, that  Cuba  should  pay  $100,000,000  out  of  the  $600,- 
000,000  indebtedness  due  for  both  wars,  also  $2,000,000  a 
year  for  the  crown  list,  and  so  on.  But  the  insurgents  would 
not  accept  it.  Even  if  made  valid  by  the  cortes,  and  the  stipu- 
lations were  fair,  covering  all  that  the  astute  statesmen  pre- 
tended, what  guarantee  had  Cuba  that  the  promises  would  be 
kept?  How  many  like  promises  had  been  made  to  the  colonies 
and  broken  ?  How  many  had  been  made  and  not  broken  ?  And 
so  the  war  with  its  usual  outrages  continued.  A  Spanish 
lieutenant-colonel  of  engineers,  Joaquin  Ruiz,  sent  by  Blanco 
to  the  camp  of  the  insurgent  brigadier,  Nestor  Aranguren,  to 
win  him  if  possible  to  autonomy,  was  seized  and  shot.  A 
month  later  the  death  of  Ruiz  was  avenged  by  the  killing  of 
Aranguren,  1,500  Spanish  soldiers  being  sent  into  the  hills  for 
that  purpose. 

A  party  of  Spaniards  in  Cuba  were  as  much  opposed  to  the 
new  constitution  as  the  rebels  themselves,  and  there  were  riots 
in  Havana  between  autonomists  constitutionalists  and  soldiers, 
which  however  noisy  resulted  in  no  great  danger. 

The  ostensible  change  of  Weyler's  policy  by  Blanco  in  the 
reconcentration  of  non-combatants,  proclaimed  November 
10th,  brought  little  change,  the  report  being  that  "  there  is 
no  general  or  marked  improvement  among  the  class  of  recon- 
centrados  as  a  whole,  and  the  frightful  rate  of  mortality  con- 
tinues." On  this  same  10th  of  November  Blanco  telegraphs 
che  Spanish  minister  at  Washington  that  "  everything  that  is 
humanely  possible  is  being  done ";  yet  two  months  later 
Blanco  might  read  at  breakfast  in  an  Havana  journal,  La 
Discussion,  printed  under  his  very  eyes,  and  speaking  of  the 
state  of  things  as  they  existed  in  the  capital  city  of  Havana: 
"  Four  hundred  and  thirty  wretched  beings  are  quartered  in 
an  unhealthy  place  entirely  without  ventilation,  huddled  to- 
gether, each  bed  made  to  accommodate  several  persons,  there 


46 

being  but  121  beds  for  500  sick  inmates.  The  medicines  found 
in  the  building  consisted  of  one  bottle  of  cod-liver  oil,  one 
demijohn  of  wine,  and  a  few  bottles  of  other  preparations. 
All  the  food  on  hand  was  reduced  to  three  pounds  of  bacon, 
twelve  pounds  of  rice,  eighteen  cans  of  condensed  milk,  half  a 
bag  of  sugar,  and  some  garlic.  Only  one  physician  and  a  few 
students  were  in  attendance,  and  they  strolled  along  the  corri- 
dors where  children,  women,  and  men  were  suffering.  The 
lack  of  food  and  clothing  occasioned  horrible  scenes.  At  one 
corner  a  mother  held  in  her  arms  the  body  of  her  dying  child, 
crying  for  help,  which  was  not  given,  while  three  other  chil- 
dren watched  in  horror  the  agony  of  their  dying  sister.  In 
another  corner  a  group  of  five  naked  children  were  huddled 
together  trying  to  keep  warm.  They  were  orphans,  with  no 
one  to  care  for  them.  Many  more  horrible  scenes  cannot  be 
described/'  On  the  6th  of  April  200  concentrados  were  mas- 
sacred after  leaving  Havana  subsequent  to  Blanco's  recall  of 
the  concentration  order. 

In  his  message  of  December  President  McKinley  reviewed 
the  situation,  and  said  that  some  action  would  have  to  be 
taken  in  Cuban  affairs.  Either  we  must  tacitly  assent  to  these 
atrocities  by  inaction,  or  we  must  interfere  and  put  a  stop 
to  them.  "  The  cruel  policy  of  concentration,"  he  goes  on 
to  say,  "  was  initiated  February  16,  1896.  The  productive  dis- 
tricts controlled  by  the  Spanish  armies  were  depopulated. 
The  agricultural  inhabitants  were  herded  in  and  about  the 
garrison  towns,  their  lands  laid  waste  and  their  dwellings  de- 
stroyed. This  policy  the  late  cabinet  of  Spain  justified  as  a 
necessary  measure  of  war,  and  as  a  means  of  cutting  off  sup- 
plies from  the  insurgents.  It  has  utterly  failed  as  a  war  meas- 
ure. It  was  not  civilized  warfare.  It  was  extermination."  It 
was  clearly  evident  that  this  state  of  things  could  not  long 
continue.  Spain's  misrule  in  Cuba  was  a  blot  upon  civilization, 
and  affairs  were  getting  worse  rather  than  better.  Spanish 
policy  was  little  likely  to  change,  if  left  for  its  improvement 
to  Spaniards. 

Early  in  1898  reliable  reports  were  received  from  consuls 
of  the  United  States  in  Cuba  of  yet  more  abominable  atroci- 
ties. From  Havana:  "The  reconcentrado  order  of  General 
Weyler  transformed  400,000  self-supporting  people,  principal- 
ly women  and  children,  into  a  multitude;  their  homes  were 


EUROPEAN    BARBARISM   IN    AMEBICA        47 

burned,  their  fields  destroyed,  and  their  live  stock  driven  away 
or  killed.  I  estimate  that  probably  200,000  of  the  rural  popu- 
lation of  the  provinces  of  Pinar  del  Rio,  Habana,  Matanzas, 
and  Santa  Clara  have  died  of  starvation."  From  Sagua  la 
Grande:  "  There  are  here  25,000  starving  families/'  From 
Matanzas:  "  I  found  a  family  of  seventeen  in  an  old  limekiln, 
all  dead  but  three."  From  another  witness:  "  In  this  district 
are  90,000  people  in  a  starving  condition."  From  Santa  Clara: 
"  Number  of  deaths  in  one  year  6,981  out  of  a  population  of 
14,000." 

Desirous  of  satisfying  himself  by  personal  observation,  Sen- 
ator Proctor,  of  Vermont,  among  others,  went  to  Cuba  in  Feb- 
ruary, and  on  his  return  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  American 
people  by  his  speech  in  congress.  Senator  Gallinger  reported 
at  the  capitol  a  visit  to  Cuba  in  March.  No  picture  can  be 
overdrawn,  he  said,  of  the  "  utter  wretchedness,  destitution, 
and  hellishness  in  that  country.  At  Havana  and  Matanzas  the 
condition  of  affairs  is  simply  indescribable.  The  reconcentra- 
dos  are  wedged  into  all  available  places  in  those  cities,  and  are 
perishing  by  the  thousand  for  want  of  the  commonest  neces- 
saries of  life.  The  best  information  obtainable  leads  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  have  been  beyond  a  doubt  400,000  deaths 
as  a  result  of  Spain's  brutal  policy,  and  the  tragedy  goes  on 
from  day  to  day." 

Standing  on  the  floor  of  congress  Senator  Thurston  said: 
"  I  shall  refer  to  these  horrible  things  no  further.  They  are 
there.  God  pity  me,  I  have  seen  them!  They  will  remain 
in  my  mind  forever.  And  this  is  almost  the  twentieth  century. 
Christ  died  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  and  Spain  is  a  Chris- 
tian nation;  she  has  set  up  more  crosses  in  more  lands,  beneath 
more  skies,  and  under  them  has  butchered  more  people  in  the 
name  of  Christ  than  all  the  nations  on  earth  combined."  It 
has  been  estimated  by  the  Spaniards  themselves  that  since  the 
beginning  of  this  war  in  1895  sixty  per  cent  of  the  light- 
colored  Cubans,  and  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  blacks  have  died, 
and  this  aside  from  the  loss  of  Spanish  troops,  amounting  to 
125,000  men.  This  would  be  a  total  loss,  based  upon  Cuban 
estimates  of  population,  of  640,000  persons. 

During  the  scores  of  years  the  native  Cubans  had  been  fight- 
ing for  freedom  from  Spain,  they  had  been  driven  from  the 
cities  by  Spanish  soldiers,  and  now  held  larger  sections  of  the 


48  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

country  through  which  it  was  more  difficult  than  ever  for 
foreign  troops  to  make  their  way.  Under  such  leaders  as  Ca- 
lixto  Garcia,  general  commanding  the  Cuban  forces  at  the  time 
of  the  United  States  invasion,  they  had  unsuccessfully  fought 
for  liberty  and  human  rights.  And  the  people  of  the  United 
States  had  long  regarded  with  horror  the  treatment  of  the 
Cubans  by  Spain,  and  questions  of  interference,  annexation, 
or  purchase  had  often  arisen.  But  during  these  many  years  of 
continued  cruelty  and  injustice,  the  impression  to  some  extent 
in  certain  quarters  was  abroad  that  it  was  the  acquisition  of 
territory  rather  than  principles  of  humanity  which  led  to  the 
protests  made  from  time  to  time  against  Spanish  colonial  policy 
as  exercised  in  the  islands  of  America.  Gradually,  however, 
by  special  investigations  made  by  congress,  the  truth  was 
reached,  and  the  outrages  were  found  to  be  worse  than  had 
been  represented.  To  every  appeal,  whether  in  form  of  re- 
quest or  demand,  Spain  now  returned  a  peremptory  negative. 
Congress  became  impatient.  The  people  demanded  more  en- 
ergetic measures.  The  president  was  heartily  with  congress 
and  the  people,  but  he  deemed  it  the  duty  of  the  executive 
first  to  exhaust  every  effort  for  accomplishing  the  right  by 
peaceable  measures,  before  plunging  the  nation  into  the  heavy 
cost  and  physical  horrors  of  war. 

Meanwhile  the  patience  of  the  nation  became  exhausted,  as 
further  damning  evidence  came  pouring  in,  and  the  president 
was  criticized  by  some  for  those  very  qualities  which  were  a 
crowning  merit.  It  was  now  fully  settled  that  Cuba  should 
be  free,  but  the  president  still  hoped  that  this  might  be  ac- 
complished without  war.  So  he  asked  congress  for  delay. 
Congress  became  impatient,  and  still  the  president  requested 
more  time.  The  people  of  the  United  States  felt  that  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  stand  idly  by  and  witness  the  wrongs 
and  cruelties  inflicted  in  the  name  of  colonization  on  an  un- 
offending people  by  such  chosen  instruments  of  Spain  as  Cam- 
pos, Weyler,  and  Blanco.  The  president  was  of  the  same 
opinion.  Yet  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  exhaust  every  pos- 
sible means  of  peaceable  solution  of  the  question  before  re- 
sorting to  a  war  which  might  be  regretted  afterward. 

In  Madrid  the  pressure  upon  the  government  for  war  was 
as  great  as  in  the  United  States,  the  people  desiring  the  pres- 
tige of  striking  the  first  blow.  Weyler  was  received  into  favor, 


EUROPEAN    BARBARISM    IN    AMERICA        49 

and  his  perspicacity  in  penetrating  what  he  called  the  hollow 
designs  of  America  was  highly  extolled.  Weyler  had  with  him 
the  popular  rabble  and  the  political  rabble,  that  is  a  low  element 
among  the  people  and  his  partisans  in  the  cortes;  but  the 
Spanish  government  by  no  means  desired  war,  or  saw  in  it 
aught  else  but  defeat.  Intelligent  Spaniards  knew  that  they 
would  have  in  their  antagonist  a  young,  wealthy,  powerful, 
and  intelligent  nation  of  nearly  eighty  millions  of  people;  they 
knew,  or  might  have  known,  were  self-knowledge  possible  for 
any  of  the  Latin  race,  that  they  were  old,  worn-out,  decrepit, 
poverty-stricken,  ignorant,  and  fanatical.  Why  then  did  they 
not  yield  gracefully  and  at  once,  before  coming  to  blows?  For 
two  reasons:  first  it  was  necessary  to  satisfy  their  riotous  popu- 
lace, who  knew  no  better  than  to  think  that  Spain  could  over- 
come all  the  armies  of  the  earth,  and  who  would  fight  their 
rulers  if  their  rulers  would  not  fight  the  Americans;  and  sec- 
ondly, from  the  insane  and  essentially  feudalistic  idea  that 
honor  demanded  that  concession  should  first  be  beaten  out 
of  them  before  they  granted  it.  Spanish  honor  is  truly  a  ras- 
cally tyrant,  requiring  its  votary  to  die  in  a  bad  cause  rather 
than  live  in  a  righteous  one,  permitting  him  to  perpetrate  any 
atrocity,  to  indulge  in  lies  and  treachery,  or  any  iniquity  in 
the  name  of  war  or  chivalry,  rather  than  to  do  the  right  thing 
because  it  is  right. 

Owing  to  this  unsettled  state  of  affairs,  in  which  American 
sympathies  were  enlisted  and  American  interests  involved,  it 
was  deemed  advisable  by  the  United  States  authorities  to  dis- 
patch a  war  vessel  to  Havana,  on  a  friendly  visit.  The  Spanish 
government  was  at  the  same  time  invited  to  return  the  courtesy, 
and  the  Spanish  battleship  Vizcaya  was  sent  to  New  York. 

On  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  January,  1898,  the  battleship 
Maine,  white  as  a  winged  messenger  of  peace,  and  flying  the 
stars  and  stripes  of  the  American  republic,  approached  the 
harbor  of  Havana,  exchanged  salutes  with  the  Spanish  bat- 
teries, and  entering  came  to  anchor.  Three  quiet  weeks  passed 
by,  when  shortly  before  ten  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  15th 
of  February,  a  fearful  explosion  occurred,  and  the  entire  for- 
ward part  of  the  vessel  was  blown  to  destruction.  Two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-six  men,  including  two  officers,  were  killed,  or  so 
wounded  and  mutilated  that  they  soon  died.  The  ship  and 
its  belongings  were  valued  in  money  at  five  million  dollars. 


50  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

A  wave  of  horror  swept  over  the  land,  and  indignation  was 
expressed  in  every  part  of  the  world.  Captain  Sigsbee,  of  the 
ill-fated  vessel,  telegraphs,  "  Public  opinion  should  be  sus- 
pended until  further  proof."  Nevertheless  he  says  later,  "  My 
first  order  on  reaching  the  deck  was  to  post  sentries  about 
the  ship.  I  knew  that  the  Maine  had  been  blown  up,  and 
believed  that  she  had  been  blown  up  from  the  outside.  There- 
fore I  ordered  a  measure  which  was  intended  to  guard  against 
attack.  There  was  the  sound  of  many  voices  from  the  shore 
suggestive  of  cheers." 

Congress  receives  the  news  in  ominous  silence,  not  a  word 
being  officially  spoken  on  the  floor  of  either  house.  President 
McKinley  and  Secretary-of-the-navy  Long  express  belief  that 
it  was  the  result  of  accident.  Three  days  later,  after  due  ex- 
amination, evidence  of  external  explosion  is  found  in  the 
wreck,  and  Senator  Mason  asks  congress  for  an  investigation. 
Spanish  officials  at  Havana  contend  that  the  explosion  was 
internal,  and  the  result  of  accident;  the  congressional  board 
of  inquiry  pronounce  it  to  have  been  outside  the  ship,  from 
the  firing  of  a  mine, — a  floating  torpedo,  experts  said. 

The  announced  purpose  of  this  ship  to  these  waters  was 
a  friendly  naval  visit,  and  the  diabolical  disaster  was  not  per- 
mitted immediately  to  influence  war  measures.  It  was  diffi- 
cult at  first  for  men  to  believe  that  within  the  pale  of  Christen- 
dom there  were  human  beings  of  so  fiendish  a  nature  as  in- 
tentionally to  commit  so  infamous  an  act.  It  was  difficult 
at  first  to  believe  that  Spain  did  it;  then  it  became  difficult 
not  so  to  believe.- 

The  facts  were  these.  Between  Spain  and  the  United  States 
relations  were  strained.  On  the  seaboard  side  the  harbor  was 
strongly  fortified,  evidently  against  the  United  States.  The 
presence  of  an  American  warship  in  these  waters  was  unwel- 
come; the  request  had  been  made  that  she  should  not  be  sent. 
On  entering  the  port  she  was  taken  by  a  Spanish  pilot  to  a  par- 
ticular mooring  buoy,  one  out  of  the  ordinary  course  and  not  in 
general  use.  There  she  was  destroyed  and  sunk  by  an  explo- 
sion from  the  outside.  An  explosive  capable  of  destroying  a 
large  battleship  is  not  an  article  of  commerce  to  be  purchased 
anywhere  by  anyone,  but  is  made  by  or  for  some  government, 
and  at  no  small  labor  and  cost.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the 
mechanism  which  wrought  this  disaster  was  placed  at  the  buoy 


EUROPEAN    BARBARISM   IN   AMERICA        51 

• 

either  before  the  ship  anchored  there  or  after  she  had  come 
to  anchor.  If  before,  then  the  ship  was  placed  over  the  ex- 
plosive by  the  Spaniards;  if  afterward,  then  the  explosive  was 
placed  under  the  ship, — certainly  not  by  the  Americans.  The 
conclusion  as  to  instrumentality  is  obvious. 

And  the  belief  that  it  was  a  Spanish  crime,  the  result  of 
Spanish  treachery,  grew  upon  the  country  and  the  world  as 
time  passed  by,  and  the  Spanish  character  came  more  clearly 
to  light  under  the  scrutiny  of  civilized  peoples. 

Courts  of  inquiry  were  instituted,  one  by  the  United  States 
government  and  one  by  the  Spanish  government;  the  former 
to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the  matter,  the  latter  to  keep  the 
truth  as  far  away  as  possible.  It  all  turned  upon  one  question, 
Was  the  ship  blown  up  from  the  inside  or  from  the  outside? 
If  the  former,  it  was  an  accident,  for  which  no  one  outside 
the  ship's  officers  and  crew  could  be  held  responsible;  if  the 
latter,  it  was  a  consequence  pointing  to  some  Weyler  or  de 
Lome  as  the  origin.  The  American  commissioners  decided 
that  the  vessel  was  blown  up  from  the  outside;  naturally,  the 
Spanish  commissioners  decided  that  the  vessel  was  blown  up 
from  the  inside.  Yet  in  all  the  discussions  of  the  Cuban  situa- 
tion by  congress  and  the  cabinet,  the  Maine  catastrophe  was 
so  far  as  possible  set  aside.  However  the  matter  stood  in  men's 
minds,  it  was  a  fact  not  proved,  and  the  treatment  of  the  main 
issue  must  be  determined  from  its  own  evidence. 

Armed  intervention  for  the  pacification  of  Cuba  was  now 
the  sentiment  of  a  large  majority  of  the  American  people. 
There  was  no  escape  from  the  war.  The  Spaniards  in  Cuba 
were  a  mediaeval  horror.  Again  and  again  remonstrances  had 
been  sent  to  Spain,  but  to  no  avail.  Equivocation  and  procras- 
tination were  all  the  satisfaction  that  could  be  wrung  from 
Spaniards.  They  objected  to  any  interference  on  the  part  of 
the  United  States,  promised  a  more  lenient  course,  and  an 
immediate  termination  of  the  difficulties,  but  did  nothing. 
The  relief  of  the  suffering  Cubans  roused  a  spirit  of  resent- 
ment, culminating  in  riots  in  Havana.  And  because  Consul- 
general  Lee  had  faithfully  reported  to  his  government  the 
Spanish  atrocities,  and  because  foreseeing  trouble  he  had  ad- 
vised all  Americans  in  Cuba  to  return  to  the  United  States, 
on  the  5th  of  March  the  Spanish  authorities  requested  the 
consul's  recall,  which  request  was  refused  by  the  United  States 


52  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

• 

government;  but  on  the  7th  of  April,  fearing  for  his  safety, 
he  was  ordered  home,  the  archives  of  the  American  consulate 
to  be  turned  over  to  the  British  consul.  The  same  day,  on 
behalf  of  the  European  powers,  a  joint  communication  was 
presented  to  President  MeKinley  by  the  diplomatic  represent- 
atives of  France,  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  Great  Britain, 
Russia,  and  Italy  expressing  a  hope  that  affairs  between  Spain 
and  the  United  States  might  be  amicably  adjusted.  The  presi- 
dent replied  that  he  hoped  it  might  be  so. 

On  the  llth  of  April  the  president  laid  before  congress  a 
brief  history  of  a  half-century  of  Cuban  insurrections.  He 
spoke  of  the  losses  to  American  interests,  the  barbarous 
methods  which  had  shocked  the  sensibilities  and  offended  the 
humane  sympathies  of  the  American  people,  and  of  the  efforts 
made  by  the  United  States  to  mediate  between  Spain  and  her 
revolted  colonies,  all  of  which  were  spurned  by  the  Spanish 
government.  "  The  war  continued  unabated,"  the  president 
goes  on  to  say.  "  The  resistance  of  the  insurgents  was  in  no 
wise  diminished.  The  efforts  of  Spain  were  increased,  both 
by  the  dispatch  of  fresh  levies  to  Cuba  and  by  the  addition 
to  the  horrors  of  the  strife  of  a  new  aid  in  human  phase  hap- 
pily unprecedented  in  the  modern  history  of  civilized  Christian 
peoples.  The  policy  of  devastation  and  concentration  inaugu- 
rated by  the  captain-general's  bando  of  October  21,  1896,  in 
the  province  of  Pinar  del  Rio,  was  thence  extended  to  embrace 
all  of  the  island  to  which  the  power  of  Spanish  arms  was  able 
to  reach  by  occupation  or  by  military  operations.  The  peas- 
antry, including  all  dwelling  in  the  open  agricultural  interior, 
were  driven  into  the  garrison  towns  of  isolated  places  held  by 
the  troops.  The  raising  and  movement  of  provisions  of  all 
kinds  were  interdicted.  The  fields  were  laid  waste,  dwellings- 
unroofed  and  fired,  mills  destroyed,  and  in  short  everything 
that  could  desolate  the  land  and  render  it  unfit  for  human 
habitation  or  support  was  commanded  by  one  or  the  other  of 
the  contesting  parties,  and  executed  by  all  the  powers  at  their 
disposal.  Long  trial  has  proved  that  the  object  for  which 
Spain  has  waged  war  cannot  be  attained.  The  fire  of  insurrec- 
tion may  flame  or  may  smolder  with  varying  seasons,  but  it 
has  not  been  and  it  is  plain  that  it  cannot  be  extinguished  by 
present  methods.  The  only  hope  of  relief  and  repose  from 
a  condition  which  can  no  longer  be  endured  is  the  enforced 


EUROPEAN   BARBARISM   IX   AMERICA       53 

pacification  of  Cuba.  In  the  name  of  humanity,  in  the  name 
of  civilization,  in  behalf  of  endangered  American  interests 
which  give  us  the  right  and  the  duty  to  speak  and  to  act,  the 
war  in  Cuba  must  stop." 

Thereupon  the  President  asked  power  from  Congress  to  put 
an  end  to  the  conflict,  and  secure  a  stable  government  for  the 
island,  using  for  the  purpose  the  military  and  naval  forces 
of  the  United  States  according  to  necessity.  The  request  was 
granted. 

Then  flashed  the  fateful  words  half  round  the  world  to 
Mira  bay : 

"  Capture  or  destroy  the  Spanish  fleet,"  said  the  President. 

"  I  will  wipe  it  from  the  ocean,"  the  Commodore  replied. 

Thus  was  initiated  a  new  era  in  the  world's  development, 
involving  a  course  of  events  broad  in  influence  as  the  earth 
and  as  far  reaching  as  time.  For  thus  was  Cuba  made  free, 
the  last  vestige  of  Spanish  authority  in  America  eradicated,  the 
Philippine  islanders  rescued  from  a  cruel  despotism,  and  the 
supremacy,  integrity,  and  humaneness  of  the  Anglo-American 
states  vindicated. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE    AWAKENING 

SLOWLY  it  dawned  on  the  minds  of  men  that  a  change  had 
come  over  the  nation.  We  were  a  new  America,  and  the  Pa- 
cific a  new  Pacific.  While  the  old  remained,  certain  un- 
familiar elements  had  introduced  themselves;  fresh  intelli- 
gence had  come  into  the  commonwealth,  with  bright  hopes 
pointing  to  broader  fields  of  usefulness.  The  fact  was  upon 
us  that  a  free  nation  can  be  successfully  evolved  upon  prin- 
ciples of  equity  and  humanity. 

And  like  all  the  evolutions  of  civilization,  this  change  had 
come  of  its  own  inherent  force,  and  not  through  any  extrinsic 
effort.  Men  talk  now  about  what  should  be  the  policy  of  the 
nation.  The  nation  had  no  policy  in  the  year  of  Ninety- 
eight.  The  president  had  no  policy  further  than  to  do  his 
duty,  according  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  each  day  as  it  came 
to  him.  There  is  no  harm  in  such  discussion,  but  while 
statesmen  are  laying  down  the  law  of  the  matter,  a  higher  law 
steps  in  and  settles  it.  Was  there  a  preconcerted  plan  in  the 
beginning  that  we  should  stir  up  Spain,  liberate  Cuba,  get 
possession  of  the  Philippine  islands,  and  blossom  into  em- 
pire? No.  And  no  more  can  men  make  plans  for  progress 
to  work  itself  out  on  in  the  future  than  they  could  have  done 
in  the  past.  The  destinies  of  nations  are  not  governed  by  acts 
of  parliament.  But  howsoever  or  by  whatsoever  agency  it 
came,  whether  by  man's  volition  or  from  the  mysterious  un- 
foldings  of  the  great  unknown,  the  change  is  upon  us,  posi- 
tive and  palpable.  We  are  different  from  what  we  were,  and 
we  shall  always  be  different;  we  cannot  go  back  if  we  would. 
A  higher  intelligence  and  a  stronger  power  than  our  own  has 
moved  us  from  our  former  course  into  a  way  better  perhaps 
or  worse,  but  into  another  way.  The  nation  awakes  to  a  reali- 
zation of  the  progress  that  has  been  made,  of  the  difference 

54 


THE  AWAKENING  55 

not  only  between  the  strength  and  resources  of  the  present 
republic  as  compared  with  the  republic  of  a  hundred  years 
ago,  but  the  difference  in  the  century  of  advance  made  by 
the  United  States  as  compared  with  that  of  any  other  nation. 
The  American  people  awoke  to  find  that  they  have  taken  a 
step  out  of  their  beaten  path,  a  step  into  the  dark  or  into  the 
light,  and  they  found  themselves  in  a  new  position,  surround- 
ed by  new  and  strange  conditions.  They  put  forth  their 
hands  to  strangle  a  monster,  and  behold  they  grasped  empire! 

Clearly  it  is  not  of  our  own  creation;  no  one  can  lay  claim 
to  the  invention  of  the  year  of  Ninety-eight,  or  of  any  part 
of  it.  It  is  destiny;  and  in  it  all  we  thankfully  recognize  a 
power  preeminent  in  all  the  principles  of  greatness.  Said 
President  Tucker,  of  Dartmouth,  "  The  supreme  outcome  of 
the  war  is  a  new  consciousness  in  the  American  people." 
There  was  a  quickening  of  thought  throughout  the  land,  and 
a  stimulation  of  inquiry,  not  only  in  the  halls  of  education 
and  legislation,  but  in  the  shops  and  farm-houses,  in  the 
marts  of  commerce  and  manufactures.  New  forces  came  into 
play;  new  and  untried  issues  were  thrust  upon  us  which  were 
destined  to  affect  the  future  of  the  world,  and  we  must  meet 
them.  Success,  which  had  come  to  us  so  suddenly,  so  over- 
whelmingly, placed  our  country  at  once  in  the  position  of 
guardian  of  justice  and  human  rights. 

As  the  national  mind  emerged  from  the  mazes  of  new  de- 
velopments, problems  one  after  another  were  thrown  for  so- 
lution upon  the  president  and  people  by  rapidly  succeeding 
events.  War  had  been  declared;  four  wonderful  months  had 
passed  by,  and  then  the  end.  Scarcely  a  mistake  had  been 
made;  not  a  single  setback  in  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  or  the  Philip- 
pines. Large  bodies  of  troops  had  been  landed  successfully 
on  hostile  shores.  The  loss  of  life  from  disease  was  less  than 
had  been  anticipated.  Every  gun  fired  had  proclaimed  to  the 
world  freedom  and  humanity,  and  the  powers  of  the  world 
recognized  the  voice,  and  while  they  hated  it  they  refrained 
from  interference.  The  avowed  purpose  having  been  ac- 
complished the  war  became  a  memory,  and  was  laid  aside  as 
an  incident;  the  grave  issues  which  arose  during  the  con- 
flict came  to  the  front,  marking  a  new  era  in  American  opin- 
ion and  policy. 

With  the  new  Pacific  there  came  a  new  patriotism.  Ameri- 
3 


56  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

cans  became  more  intensely  Americans,  more  one  and  indivisi- 
ble than  ever  before.  It  was  a  patriotism  of  an  order  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  finds  expressions  in  Fourth-of-July 
buncombe,  or  in  Chinese  expulsion,  or  in  negro  suffrage.  An 
intense  pride  of  race  was  at  once  engendered,  which  was  the 
primary  cause  of  our  sudden  friendship  for  England  and  Eng- 
lish-speakers every  where,  finding  as  we  did  so  much  that  was 
despicable  in  the  Latin  race.  Nor  was  it  narrow  prejudice, 
but  rather  a  fuller  realization  of  facts  purchased  by  experi- 
ence. If  we  are  willing  to  admit  thus  suddenly  falling  in  love 
with  ourselves,  we  may  at  least  claim  that  it  was  with  the 
nobler  part  of  ourselves.  If  we  were  proud  of  ourselves,  it 
was  not  of  our  brutality,  our  cunning,  our  chicane,  but  of  the 
better  principles  of  humanity  which  had  led  us  on  to  high 
achievement.  It  was  a  patriotism  which  filled  us  with  pride 
for  a  country  which  bred  men  for  such  deeds,  and  for  institu- 
tions which  yielded  such  results.  An  American  in  Asia  ex- 
pressed the  feelings  which  inspired  millions  of  Americans  in 
America.  "  When  the  news  of  Dewey's  victory  was  con- 
firmed ".  he  says,  "  I  was  the  biggest  man  in  Hongkong.  My 
chest  went  out  a  foot,  and  I  was  twenty  years  younger.  You 
should  have  seen  me  strut,  and  every  one  in  Hongkong 
touched  his  hat  to  me." 

The  war  with  all  its  victories  had  come  upon  the  American 
people  like  a  whirlwind,  and  we  had  now  before  us  the  be- 
wildering consequences.  In  the  first  flush  of  success  we 
paused,  standing  in  awe  of  ourselves,  of  our  prowess.  Won- 
deringly  we  beheld  our  work,  and  deemed  it  great,  and  ourselves 
great.  We  had  but  leaned  against  the  pillars  of  this  Penin- 
sula, and  lo!  it  had  crumbled  to  dust.  Spain  was  a  mighty 
nation,  old  as  Christianity,  once  owner  of  half  the  world; 
how  easily  we  had  conquered  her!  Then  we  reflected;  the 
Spaniards  are  a  people  of  many  to-morrows;  old  age  brings 
decrepitude;  with  their  second  rate  ships,  and  antiquated 
guns,  and  poor  marksmen,  two  thousand  of  them  being  un- 
able to  kill  a  single  man  of  us  in  open  fight, — perhaps  it  was 
not  so  brilliant  an  achievement  as  we  had  thought;  and  if 
we  are  a  world  power,  then  the  other  powers  of  the  world  are 
not  so  potential  after  all. 

War  is  an  evil,  though  not  always  or  altogether  evil.  All 
wars  are  brutal,  but  not  all  are  base.  As  a  rule  war  is  de- 


THE  AWAKENING  5} 

moralizing,  because  as  a  rule  it  is  waged  on  one  side  or  on 
both  sides  in  an  ignoble  cause.  The  last  Franco-German 
war  was  wholly  base  on  both  sides,  born  of  hatred  and  jeal- 
ousy, without  principle  and  without  one  redeeming  feature. 
What  were  nine-tenths  of  all  the  wars  of  history  but  displays 
of  bloody  fanaticism,  and  the  lust  of  gain  and  glory.  Wars 
for  national  independence,  for  national  integrity,  for  the 
cause  of  humanity  are  not,  in  the  outcome,  however  they 
may  be  in  the  action,  demoralizing,  but  ennobling  to  a  peo- 
ple, and  that  throughout  all  time.  There  is  not  an  American, 
who  can  truly  be  called  a  man,  who  is  not  morally  better  and 
stronger  by  reason  of  our  war  with  Spain.  For  he  is  one  of 
a  nation  that  has  uplifted  all  the  nations  in  setting  higher 
than  ever  before  the  standards  of  international  morality. 
The  apprehension  expressed  by  Professor  Bryce  that  ihe  con- 
quering spirit  may  be  developed  by  our  late  acquisitions  loses 
somewhat  of  its  force  when  we  remember  that  this  was  not  a 
war  of  conquest,  that  territory  came  as  an  incident  and  not 
as  an  object.  There  are  surely  no  signs  at  present  apparent 
on  the  part  of  the  people  of  a  serious  accession  to  the  war 
spirit. 

The  only  unjust  war  our  country  ever  waged,  the  only  war 
for  territory,  so  wrought  upon  the  national  conscience  and 
the  popular  mind  as  to  create  a  strong  aversion  to  fighting  or 
looting  our  neighbors;  and  that  too  after  paying  Mexico  $15,- 
000,000  hush  money.  The  two  were  wholly  different  in  the 
inception,  the  war  with  Mexico  and  the  war  with  Spain.  The 
former  grew  out  of  the  desire  of  Polk  and  his  politicians  for 
more  slave  territory;  the  sole  purpose  of  the  latter  was  to 
right  a  great  wrong,  and  deliver  our  borders  from  the  curse 
of  Spanish  medievalism.  Additional  domain  came  in  both 
instances;  yet  there  are  no  signs  of  our  coveting  more;  the 
American  people  now  as  hitherto  seem  to  know  when  they 
have  enough.  Another  fear  expressed  is  that  we  will  be- 
come a  military  nation.  For  that  matter  we  have  always  been 
military  enough  to  wage  successful  war  when  we  deemed  war 
necessary;  we  are  now  military  enough  to  put  such  men  and 
machinery  in  the  field  as  to  accomplish  any  purpose  we  are 
likely  to  undertake.  It  is  not  bad  to  be  able  to  fight;  it  is 
only  bad  to  fight  in  a  bad  cause.  To  reasonably  increase  and 
render  more  efficient  our  navy;  to  have  military  schools  of 


58 

high  efficiency  turning  out  graduates  enough  properly  to  of- 
ficer and  drill  a  million  or  two  of  volunteer  troops  in  any  emer- 
gency, will  not  tax  the  resources  of  the  nation  very  severely. 
As  for  a  large  standing  army  or  a  too  cumbersome  navy,  they 
are  not  necessary  in  the  United  States,  where  the  people  are 
an  army  and  navy  unto  themselves,  as  has  in  every  instance 
been  amply  proved. 

A  good  navy,  however,  during  the  present  era  of  dismem- 
berments, and  the  seizure  and  appropriation  of  half  the  world 
by  the  other  half,  is  a  good  thing,  though  it  is  a  question  if 
it  is  wise  for  England  and  France  to  put  all  their  money  into 
warships.  It  may  come  to  this,  however;  for  in  going  forth 
to  fight  the  world  it  is  best  to  be  the  best  armed;  so  when 
England  adds  fifty  to  her  five  hundred  ships  France  must 
add  a  hundred,  while  Eussia  stands  by  figuring  it  up,  and 
makes  1000  ships  matched  against  1000  equivalent  to  fifty 
matched  against  fifty,  and  so  proposes  to  the  powers,  "  Let 
us  limit  ourselves  to  fifty  fighting  ships  each ",  which  of 
course  reduces  the  whole  thing  to  an  absurdity.  For  if  by 
convention  the  fighting  powers  of  each  nation  is  limited  to 
a  certain  standard  or  grade,  why  not  as  well  each  lay  aside 
all  his  strength  as  a  part  of  it,  and  so  stop  fighting  altogether, 
which  indeed  were  the  wiser  course. 

Our  few  warships  were  found  of  service  in  the  late  mis- 
understanding with  Spain.  The  general  opinion  after  the 
war  was  that  the  army  and  navy  should  both  be  increased, 
the  former  perhaps  to  100,000  men,  and  the  latter  by  twenty 
to  fifty  ships.  The  fighting  potentiality  of  the  United  States 
rests  not  so  much  upon  a  standing  army  as  upon  the  navy. 
The  popularity  of  the  cause  is  more  than  either;  for  if  the 
cause  be  sufficiently  popular  as  to  unite  in  opinion  the  several 
sections  and  classes  of  the  republic,  the  necessary  millions  of 
men  and  money  will  always  be  forthcoming.  In  a  cause 
which  inspires  his  enthusiasm,  and  properly  officered,  the 
United  States  volunteer  is  an  effective  fighter, — courageous, 
cool,  and  obedient  to  discipline.  The  navy  has  so  lately  spoken 
for  itself  that  it  needs  no  praise  from  me.  In  numbers  of 
ships  and  men,  England's  navy  comes  first  in  the  world; 
after  that  in  the  order  named  the  navies  of  France,  Russia, 
and  Germany.  With  the  completion  of  the  ships  now  build- 
ing, the  United  States  will  be  fourth  in  ships  and  men,  be- 


THE  AWAKENING  51) 

ing  surpassed  only  by  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Russia. 
Thus  we  find  that  we  have  become  a  naval  as  well  as  a  military 
power,  and  are  daily  becoming  greater.  The  spirit  of  progress 
inspires  the  people.  Humanity  joins  hands  with  patriotism 
and  high  endeavor.  We  have  seen  the  importance  of  a  navy, 
and  we  will  never  be  without  such  a  one  as  will  place  us  on  a 
fair  footing  with  other  nations.  We  have  seen  how,  had 
Dewey  failed  at  Manila,  Hawaii  and  the  entire  Pacific  coast 
would  have  been  at  the  mercy  of  Spain,  and  this  war  would 
have  had  a  different  history.  Dewey's  engagement  should  be 
classed  among  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world,  an  issue  af- 
fecting the  destinies  of  nations  as  well  as  the  minor  affairs  of 
men  so  long  as  America  and  Asia  shall  continue  to  make  his- 
tory. The  wars  of  Europe  and  America  for  the  past  century 
have  cost  5,000,000  of  men  and  $20,000,000,000.  Our  revo- 
lutionary war  cost  $135,000,000;  our  civil  war  cost  the  north 
$3,400,000,000,  and  the  south  as  much  more  in  money  and 
destruction  of  property.  Compare  these  figures  with  the  rel- 
ative wealth  of  nations  based  upon  the  records,  where  Spain 
is  placed  at  $11,300,000,000;  Italy,  $15,800,000,000;  Aus- 
tria, $22,560,000,000;  Russia,  $32,125,000,000;  Germany, 
$40,260,000,000;  France,  $47,950,000,000;  Great  Britain, 
$59,030,000,000;  and  the  United  States  at  $81,750,000,000. 

Immediately  after  the  war  attention  was  given  to  coast  de- 
fences and  the  emplacement  of  heavy  guns.  The  value  of 
forts,  shore  batteries,  and  submarine  mines  was  fully  demon- 
strated at  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  and  appropriations  were 
made  for  the  better  protection  of  our  ports  on  the  Pacific. 

From  the  present  point  of  view  we  can  see  that  the  war  with 
Spain  was  inevitable.  If  not  of  our  own  seeking,  it  was  none 
the  less  impossible  for  us  to  avoid  it;  for  involved  in  the 
issue  were  principles  which  if  not  solved  would  have  blocked 
the  wheels  of  progress.  It  settled  within  a  brief  period  vital 
points  affecting  the  human  race  which  otherwise  might  have 
dragged  themselves  along  undetermined  throughout  the  cen- 
tury. The  time  had  come  when  despotism  of  whatsoever 
nature  could  no  longer  be  maintained  on  the  borders  of  the 
American  republic.  So  it  had  been  with  slavery,  polygamy, 
tyranny;  so  it  will  be  with  other  barbarisms  which  perhaps 
we  now  unwittingly  harbor. 

We  are  told  by  those  abroad,  and  we  often  repeat  it  to 


GO  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

ourselves,  that  we  are  now  a  power  of  the  first  class  among 
nations,  a  moral  and  political  power  as  well  as  a  fighting 
power.  To  fight  it  is  necessary  to  be  armed.  A  small  stand- 
ing army  will  keep  affairs  in  order  at  home  and  on  the  islands, 
but  would  prove  of  little  avail  among  the  powers  of  Europe. 
The  greatest  power  now  is  the  one  that  has  the  largest  navy, 
with  the  men  and  money  to  keep  it  in  a  state  of  the  highest 
efficiency.  We  have  no  fear  of  the  land  legions  of  any  nation; 
we  have  always  at  hand  the  material  from  which  to  improvise 
an  army  of  several  millions,  but  it  would  be  of  little  use 
abroad;  we  have,  however,  great  respect  for  a  great  navy, 
particularly  when  it  comes  booming  and  bombarding  along 
our  coasts.  To  be  powerful,  a  navy  must  to  some  extent  be 
ponderous;  and  yet,  personnel  is  more  than  ponderosity. 
The  potential  power  of  the  French  navy  may  be  ten  times 
that  of  the  United  States,  and  yet  it  by  no  means  follows  that 
the  navy  of  France  can  sink  the  navy  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  doubtful  if  the  battleship  Oregon  would  have  fled  be- 
fore Cervera's  fleet  had  they  met  in  open  ocean.  We  may  be 
sure  that  her  commander  sailed  the  high  seas  without  thought 
of  avoiding  encounter,  whatever  the  instructions  from  Wash- 
ington. 

Yes;  every  one  says  that  the  United  States  is  now  a  great 
power,  one  of  the  great  powers  of  the  world;  meaning  of 
course  a  great  military  power,  or  naval  power,  or  possibly  and 
perhaps  necessarily  in  connection  with  its  militarism,  a  money 
power.  Few  consider  the  nobler  strength  and  prestige  falling 
on  the  nation  by  this  episode  of  1898,  the  moral  preeminence 
attained.  We  feel  it  already  in  our  politics,  in  the  better 
quality  of  manhood  that  is  coming  forward  to  assume  the 
duties  of  government  and  society.  No  nation  can  fight  such 
battles,  and  for  such  a  cause,  without  being  the  better  for  it. 
There  is  where  our  true  power  lies,  a  power  to  live  for  and 
die  for,  the  strength  to  be  true  to  high  principles,  and  to  do 
good  to  our  fellow  men. 

The  naval  lessons  of  the  war  are  not  without  significance. 
The  first  is  that  manhood  and  seamanship  are  as  essential  to 
success  as  good  guns  and  expert  gunners.  It  was  said  that 
but  for  the  Oregon,  at  the  Santiago  naval  fight,  the  Colon 
would  have  escaped,  and  but  for  the  engineer,  who  had  saved 
up  some  good  coal  and  knew  how  to  use  it  to  the  best  ad- 


THE  AWAKENING  <U 

vantage  in  the  chase,  the  Oregon  would  have  been  left  behind. 
Thus  to  the  engineer  we  may  accredit  the  capture  of  the 
enemy's  vessel  and  the  glorious  outcome  of  the  engagement. 
Next  to  a  navy,  and  the  money  to  maintain  it,  coaling-stations 
are  an  essential  of  international  power.  England  has  long 
seen  this,  and  her  stations  for  coaling  at  convenient  points 
and  distances  apart  give  her  the  advantage  over  any  govern- 
ment of  five  times  the  naval  strength  not  having  this  advan- 
tage. This  vital  convenience,  totally  lacking  before  the  war, 
the  United  States  now  has  in  all  the  waters  where  it  will  ever 
be  required, — unless  our  imperialism  shall  some  day  embrace 
Europe  and  Africa  as  well  as  Asia  and  America, — to  a  greater 
extent  perhaps  than  any  other  nation  except  Great  Britain. 
Besides  the  increase  of  army  and  navy,  provision  for  the 
future  was  proposed  to  be  made  by  laying  up  an  emergency 
supply  of  coal  of  a  half  a  million  tons  in  storage  ships  and 
naval  stations  in  the  ports  along  the  Atlantic,  Pacific,  and 
gulf  coasts,  and  on  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies  and  the  Pa- 
cific. 

Mr  James  Bryce  and  Carl  Schurz  both  argue  that  the  cost 
of  a  navy  for  the  defences  of  Cuba  and  Hawaii  would  be  more 
than  the  profit  of  their  acquisition.  In  answer  we  would  say 
that  these  countries  were  not  acquired  for  profit  in  the  first 
place;  and  secondly,  why  is  not  a  powerful  navy  as  necessary 
for  the  protection  of  our  Atlantic  and  Pacific  seaboards  as  for 
the  protections  of  the  islands  adjacent?  True,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  these  tropical  islands  are  unfit  either  for  self-govern- 
ment or  for  the  adoption  of  American  institutions;  but  the 
present  natives,  what  they  are  or  what  they  desire  is  not  the 
whole  of  the  problem  which  comes  up  for  solution.  There 
are  comparatively  few  natives  left.  We  do  not  propose  cruel- 
ty, inhumanity,  injustice,  or  any  but  the  fairest  dealing  with 
them;  but  there  are  other  things  to  be  considered,  among 
them  the  possibilities  of  these  lands  and  their  value  to  civili- 
zation. I  think  if  the  true  sentiment  of  the  American  people 
were  ascertained,  it  would  be  found  that  they  care  very  little 
for  the  cost  of  this  war,  or  the  cost  of  governing  the  islands. 
What  we  prize  as  the  outcome  of  it  is  the  new  quality  of  man- 
hood achieved  or  discovered.  What  we  need  as  a  nation  is  to 
spend,  not  to  hoard  money.  This  farm  of  Uncle  Sam's  is 
sadly  in  need  of  improvements  and  repairs,  which  if  made 


62  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

would  increase  its  value  four  fold.  The  money  given  therefor 
would  be  an  investment  rather  than  an  expenditure.  If  our 
law-makers  would  learn  how  properly  to  invest  money  in  the 
greatly  needed  requirements  of  the  nation,  instead  of  clogging 
such  legislation  while  squandering  millions  on  needless  meas- 
ures affecting  their  politics  or  reelection  to  office,  we  should 
soon  have  a  merchant  marine,  an  interoceanic  canal,  and  the 
great  interior  desert  intersected  by  irrigating  ditches,  and 
spanned  by  government  railways  delivering  the  inhabitants 
from  the  tyranny  of  a  commercial  despotism  under  which 
they  have  groaned  for  a  third  of  a  century. 

As  previously  intimated,  battleships  and  coast  defences  will 
play  more  important  parts  than  inland  armies  in  determining 
future  issues.  This  was  made  evident  no  less  by  the  war  be- 
tween Japan  and  China,  where  the  capture  of  coast  fortifica- 
tions resulted  in  the  subjugation  of  a  vast  empire  by  a  nation 
of  one  twelfth  the  size  and  of  far  inferior  resources,  than  by 
our  war  with  Spain,  where  a  two  hours  play  of  war  vessels 
determined  the  contest.  The  United  States  navy  was  brought 
to  its  present  state  of  efficiency  by  years  of  training,  which 
the  national  habits  prevented  in  the  Spanish  navy.  This  under- 
lying element  of  work  is  the  fundamental  and  characteristic 
difference  between  the  two  peoples,  and  explains  the  differ- 
ence in  their  progress, — intelligent  labor  and  thoroughness 
on  one  side,  laziness  and  procrastination  on  the  other.  Pom- 
posity will  not  serve  instead  of  discipline  in  the  hour  of  bat- 
tle. The  declaration  of  war  found  Dewey  at  Hongkong  and 
Sampson  off  the  coast  of  Florida,  engaged  not  in  loud  talk 
and  long  siestas,  but  in  drilling  their  men  in  gunnery  and 
naval  tactics;  and  the  world  knows  the  result. 

If  war  is  an  evil,  it  is  at  the  same  time  a  luxury,  the  great- 
est of  luxuries,  men  paying  for  it  more  than  for  all  other  lux- 
uries combined.  Progress  is  a  battle,  and  is  usually  acceler- 
ated by  battles.  The  new  life  is  fed  by  death.  Europe  kills 
10,000,000  of  her  own  people,  and  10,000,000  of  Africans  and 
Asiatics,  every  hundred  years.  The  institutions  of  Christian 
nations  are  fertilized  by  the  blood  of  their  own  people.  These 
economics  of  the  universe  seem  to  us  poor  mortals  bad  econo- 
my. The  slaughter  of  20,000,000  men,  leaves  desolate  double 
that  number  of  women  and  children.  Then  again,  to  kill 
these  20,000,000  men  costs  according  to  fair  estimates  £3,000,- 


THE  AWAKENING  63 

000,000.  Wholesale  as  has  been  the  slaughter,  it  has  cost  the 
powers  £150  to  kill  each  man,  and  as  for  the  victims,  not  one 
in  ten  knew  for  what  cause  he  fought  or  why  he  should  be 
killed,  further  than  the  pounds  or  pence  per  month  wage. 
The  willingness  for  war  on  the  part  of  the  American  people 
was  not  for  the  indulgence  of  a  vulgar  trial  of  strength  or 
brutal  encounter,  but  a  natural  and  almost  unconscious  im- 
pulse to  rescue  the  oppressed  and  lift  up  the  down-trodden. 

Our  late  war  with  Spain  was  peculiar  in  many  respects.  It 
was  short  and  decisive;  was  attended  by  limited  loss  of  life; 
was  free  as  possible  from  hate,  cruelty,  or  revenge,  and  when 
the  vanquished  sued  for  terms,  they  were  accorded  in  a  spirit 
of  fairness  unattended  by  any  great  unnecessary  humiliation. 
For  so  small  an  affair  it  yielded  great  returns.  It  was  a  profit- 
able conflict  to  both  victor  and  vanquished.  It  was  worth  to 
Spain  all  it  cost  in  delivering  her  from  her  unprofitable  col- 
onies; and  it  was  worth  to  the  United  States  many  times  its 
cost  as  an  object  lesson,  teaching  men  how  to  kill  their  fellow 
men  gracefully,  humanely,  and  in  all  Christian  charity. 
Never  before  was  seen  in  war  such  zeal  and  patriotism  unat- 
tended by  enmity,  and  where  there  was  such  an  absence  of 
any  desire  to  inflict  wanton  injury  upon  the  enemy.  But 
whether  we  are  the  better  or  the  worse  for  the  war,  we  are 
no  longer  the  same.  We  have  changed;  not  designedly  or  by 
our  own  volition,  but  suddenly  and  unconsciously.  Dewey's 
victory  transformed  the  American  people  into  a  new  nation 
with  new  opinions  and  purposes,  and  from  that  point  ever  to 
go  forward  and  not  backward.  Undo  the  victory,  throw  away 
the  islands,  turn  back  a  leaf  in  the  book  of  fate;  all  of  no 
avail.  We  may  read  of  ourselves  as  we  were  on  that  first  of 
May,  as  we  would  read  of  a  people  who  lived  a  hundred  years 
ago. 

There  have  been  wars  which  advanced  civilization  and 
proved  a  blessing  to  mankind,  and  there  have  been  wars  which 
from  first  to  last  were  nothing  but  a  curse.  Most  of  the  world's 
wars  will  have  to  be  placed  in  the  latter  category,  the  wars  of 
the  Alexanders  and  Caesars;  the  wars  of  the  great  Peters  and 
Fredericks,  and  of  the  scourge  Napoleon;  religious  wars,  and 
such  foolish  fighting  as  the  French  and  Prussian  war,  all 
these  have  been  and  are  unmitigated  evil. 

If  true  what  John  Bright  said  in  the  house  of  commons 


64  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

regarding  our  civil  war:  "  We  see  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  has  for  two  years  past  been  contending  for  its 
life,  and  we  know  that  it  is  contending  necessarily  for  human 
freedom.  That  government  affords  the  remarkable  example 
offered  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  of  a 
great  government  coming  forward  as  the  organized  defender 
of  law,  freedom,  and  equality" — if  this  be  true  and  praise- 
worthy, then  we  may  say  with  equal  confidence  that  never 
before  appeared  a  great  nation,  in  open  battle  and  apart  from 
all  fanaticism  as  the  avowed  champion  of  humanity. 

A  further  effect  of  our  naval  victories  was  to  inspire  with 
confidence  and  enthusiasm  not  only  the  government  and  peo- 
ple at  large  but  the  entire  personnel  of  every  branch  of  the 
service,  naval  and  military;  also  to  remove  all  fear  for  the 
Pacific  American  coast,  and  to  lessen  the  rates  of  insurance 
on  goods  and  vessels  in  the  merchant  marine  service.  War 
usually  brings  more  of  good  or  evil  than  is  promised  at  the 
outset.  Likewise  men  go  to  war  for  one  thing  and  get  an- 
other. Independence  was  not  the  supreme  idea  at  the  be- 
ginning of  our  war  with  Great  Britain,  nor  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  our  civil  war.  The  poorest  result  of  the  war  with 
Spain,  the  object  least  worth  attainment  was  the  acquisition 
of  these  tropical  islands,  for  which  we  have  little  use;  but 
there  remain  to  us  as  trophies,  worth  many  times  their  cost, 
a  more  refined  consciousness  of  the  right,  a  love  of  liberty  for 
others  as  well  as  for  ourselves,  higher  aspiration,  and  firmer 
principles.  It  was  felt  that  the  destiny  of  the  American  peo- 
ple is  toward  whatever  is  best  for  humanity,  toward  the  larg- 
est enlightenment  and  the  uplifting  of  the  human  race.  The 
wars  of  America  have  all  been  successful,  have  all  been  bless- 
ings, however  horrible  in  the  achievement,  have  all  been  hon- 
orable and  for  righteous  cause, — all  save  one,  the  inglorious 
war  with  Mexico  for  slave  territory.  Our  wars  with  England 
gave  us  national  independence;  our  civil  war  saved  the  integ- 
rity of  the  nation;  our  war  with  Spain  gives  us  new  being, 
elevation  of  thought  and  feeling,  expansion  of  ideas  and  in- 
tellect with  expanded  domain.  When  we  include  Spain  as 
among  the  beneficiaries  of  the  war  it  is  in  a  material  sense 
that  is  implied;  no  teaching  by  example  or  otherwise  would 
have  much  influence  with  the  dry  bones  of  the  Peninsula, 
but  the  benefit  accrues  in  another  way.  It  was  a  blessing  to 


THE  AWAKENING  65 

Spain  to  lose  her  island  colonies.  Whatever  they  may  have 
been  to  her  in  the  past,  they  could  never  bring  her  any  thing 
in  the  future  but  trouble  and  loss.  They  were  diseased  mem- 
bers of  a  diseased  trunk;  amputation  was  necessary,  and  the 
price  paid  the  surgeon  was  none  too  high.  A  single  decade 
of  Cuban  war,  from  1868  to  1878,  cost  Spain  200,000  troops 
and  many  millions  of  money;  the  cost  of  another  war  decade, 
say  from  1896  to  1906,  could  Spain  and  Cuba  have  survived 
so  long,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate. 

Even  England's  loss  of  colonies  was  a  gain  to  her.  By 
that  loss  she  learned  a  lesson  which  brought  her  profit  in  the 
end.  Spain  is  too  old  and  too  conceited  to  learn.  But  di- 
rectly as  well  as  indirectly,  it  is  plain  to-day  that  England  is 
the  better  off  for  America's  independence.  Look  at  Canada. 
Would  England  wish  to  be  mother  of  another  child  like  that? 
Are  we  not  worth  more  to  her  in  pounds  sterling  as  a  rich 
cousin,  a  buyer  of  her  merchandise,  a  world  power  allied  in 
blood  and  sentiment,  than  as  a  thriftless  child  of  grace? 

If  Spain  did  us  a  good  turn  in  coming  forward  to  be  beaten, 
we  have  returned  the  obligation  in  doing  our  work  well.  If 
it  is  well  for  Americans  to  know  their  strength,  it  is  well  for 
Spain  to  know  her  weakness.  Not  that  there  is  any  thing  to 
be  proud  of,  now  that  we  know  what  we  have  done,  in  giving 
a  drubbing  to  an  old  woman  in  her  dotage;  but  the  exercise 
and  experience  may  prove  of  use  in  more  serious  engagements. 
If  Spain  would  now  toll  her  bell,  ring  herself  out  of  the 
category  of  lighting  nations,  disarm,  and  join  the  tsar's  peace 
brigade,  it  would  be  a  happy  consummation,  dispelling  all 
her  woes.  She  can  the  better  afford  to  do  this  at  the  present 
time,  not  having  many  arms  left  to  dispose  of,  and  those  of 
little  value.  It  must  be  said  in  justice  to  American  chivalry 
and  sentiment,  that  the  people  did  not  know  how  poor  and 
pitiful  the  Spanish  nation  had  become,  or  they  would  not 
have  regarded  their  victories  as  such  high  achievements. 

The  more  immediate  effect  of  the  war  in  the  United  States 
was  to  fill  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  people  with  joy  and 
thankfulness,  not  unmingled  with  grave  considerations  re- 
garding the  new  and  broad  responsibilities  thus  suddenly 
laid  upon  them.  There  has  been  a  great  awakening  the 
•  world  over,  politically  and  commercially,  owing  to  the  grand 
and  unexpected  display  of  wealth  and  power  on  the  part  of 


G6 

the  United  States,  and  in  the  sudden  transformation  in  the 
condition  of  affairs  in  the  Orient.  It  is  no  longer  alone  the 
powers  of  Europe  in  Asia,  but  the  powers  of  Europe  and 
America  in  Asia.  It  tended  to  enlarge  the  national  ideas 
and  strengthen  the  national  character,  and  bring  home  to 
the  minds  not  only  of  our  own  citizens  but  of  the  citizens 
of  the  world,  a  fuller  realization  of  the  high  destiny  of  the 
American  people.  It  opened  the  eyes  not  only  of  foreign 
powers  and  peoples,  but  of  Americans  themselves,  to  what 
stature  and  strength  as  a  nation  we  have  attained.  To  the 
oriental  mind  America  appears  in  a  wholly  new  light.  Every 
American  legation  and  consulate,  not  only  in  the  east  but 
throughout  the  world,  was  at  once  elevated  and  strengthened. 
Every  American,  whether  at  home  or  abroad,  feels  prouder 
of  his  country,  while  he  remembers  that  he  too  is  an  American. 

It  was  indeed  a  New  Pacific  on  which  our  eyes  opened  after 
the  war;  an  ocean  of  limitless  potentialities;  opportunities 
for  enlarging  our  commerce,  for  extending  the  influence  of 
free  institutions,  and  while  benefiting  ourselves  benefit  all 
the  world.  Here  might  be  preached  the  religion  of  industry, 
and  a  new  faith  in  the  human  race  promulgated.  Coming  to 
us  as  a  gift  not  of  our  own  seeking,  these  Atlantic  isles  and 
Pacific  archipelagoes,  there  is  none  the  less  with  the  gift  a 
sacred  obligation  whose  responsibility  we  dare  not  shirk.  For 
with  the  obligation  fortune  gives  us  opportunity,  which  im- 
plies duty.  We  can  exercise  an  influence  for  good  over  the 
people  which  we  have  been  thus  unexpectedly  called  upon  to 
govern,  and  help  to  modify,  perhaps,  the  evil  designs  of  Eu- 
rope in  Asia. 

Events  followed  one  another  in  such  startling  rapidity  as 
often  to  leave  no  time  for  deliberation,  and  no  honorable 
alternative.  Thus  after  the  Maine  explosion,  war  must  fol- 
low; after  the  Manila  bay  victory  the  Philippines  must  be 
taken;  after  the  attack  on  our  forces  by  the  insurgents,  they 
must  be  fought.  We  were  without  choice  in  these  matters; 
destiny  seemed  to  be  ruling  us,  even  as  it  rules  us  now,  for  if 
we  would  not  see  the  glory  of  Ninety-eight  turned  into  our 
shame,  the  Aguinaldo  rebellion  must  be  put  down  at  any 
cost. 

Men's  eyes  were  opened  as  well  to  what  will  be  as  to  what 
has  been.  If  during  the  past  century,  or  a  little  more,  the  two 


THE  AWAKENING  G7 

Americas  have  been  delivered  from  European  despotism  and 
made  free;  if  from  the  institutions  of  mediaeval  monarchies 
this  vast  area  has  become  republican, — for  Canada  is  as  free 
as  any  republic,  more  republican  indeed  than  any  of  the  Span- 
ish American  republics;  if  with  freedom  have  also  been 
gained  the  services  of  steam  and  electricity,  the  advantages 
of  scores  of  inventions,  as  railways  and  steamships,  agri- 
cultural implements  and  mining  machinery,  manufacturing 
plants  with  their  endless  improvements  great  and  small, — if 
all  this  and  more  be  the  result  of  one  century's  work,  what 
will  be  the  result  of  a  second  century  of  like  labor  in  the 
same  ratio  of  progression? 

From  this  war  new  social  and  political  mechanisms  are 
evolved.  Possibilities  and  probabilities  never  before  con- 
templated at  once  presented  themselves.  We  are  to  take  our 
place  with  the  other  powers  of  the  world  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Far  East,  and  in  the  commercial  development  of  the  Pacific. 
For  besides  a  moral  and  political  power  we  have  become  an 
industrial  power.  Our  line  of  tropical  islands  with  conti- 
nental possessions  extending  to  the  north  pole,  give  soil  and 
climate  for  the  successful  growth  of  every  species  of  plants 
the  earth  produces.  Of  minerals,  forests  and  all  other  natural 
wealth  we  have  unlimited  supplies.  Already  exports  exceed 
imports,  while  our  manufactures  are  taking  the  first  place  in 
all  the  markets  of  the  world.  A  world's  power  indeed!  And 
let  it  always  be  as  it  has  been,  a  power  for  the  true,  the  bene- 
ficial, and  the  good. 

There  was  no  sudden  rise  in  the  price  of  products,  as  is 
usually  the  case  in  war  time,  particularly  when  attended  by  a 
depreciation  of  the  national  currency.  As  business  continued 
to  improve  after  the  war,  prices  advanced,  more  particularly 
manufactured  articles  of  iron  and  copper.  Later,  agricultural 
products  advanced;  also  coal  and  oil,  and  chemicals.  And 
as  wealth  accumulated,  and  money  massed  itself  in  trusts  and 
monopolies,  there  was  at  the  same  time  a  breaking  down  of 
trade  barriers,  and  openings  of  new  highways  of  commerce. 
The  prosperity  of  the  nation  never  was  greater;  the  profits 
from  industry  covered  the  cost  of  the  war  many  times  over. 

Early  in  1899  the  New  York  market  for  securities  showed 
an  increase  of  business  to  1,500,000  shares  a  day  without  a 
break,  owing  primarily  to  the  large  successive  crops  of  the 


08  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

past  two  years,  which  sold  abroad  at  good  prices,  thus  swell- 
ing exports  while  imports  decreased,  and  so  leaving  a  surplus 
for  investment  in  home  securities.  Commercial  confidence 
was  further  increased  by  the  settled  state  of  the  silver  ques- 
tion, no  fear  being  entertained  of  currency  fluctuations.  Then 
there  were  the  increased  earnings  of  the  railroads,  the  out- 
put of  iron  and  the  exports  of  manufactures,  the  large  pay- 
ments through  the  clearing-houses,  and  the  low  rate  of  in- 
terest, all  tending  to  an  increase  of  business.  This  is  all  the 
more  phenomenal  because  the  people  of  the  United  States 
during  the  past  three  decades  have  lived  in  a  lethargy  of  ap- 
parent inactivity  and  business  depression,  but  undergoing  in 
reality  great  prosperity.  Therefore  the  war  and  its  results 
come  upon  us  as  a  crisis,  which  requires  to  some  extent  a  read- 
justment of  affairs  in  order  properly  to  be  met.  Until  our 
eyes  were  thus  opened  we  did  not  know  the  extent  of  our 
prosperity  during  those  dull  times,  how  population  had  in- 
creased, ideas  advanced,  art  and  science  enlarged,  and  even 
industry,  commerce,  and  wealth  wonderfully  increased.  In 
Blackwood's  Magazine  one  writes:  "Unless  all  the  signs  de- 
ceive, the  American  republic  breaks  from  her  old  moorings 
and  sails  out  to  be  a  world  power.  Whether  the  start  has 
been  well  made — with  sagacity,  with  dignity,  with  due  cir- 
cumspection and  preparedness  against  internal  disturbance, 
for  example, — is  for  the  Americans  to  consider.  For  our  part, 
we  must  acknowledge  that  the  movement  is  perfectly  natural, 
if  not  mysteriously  imperative;  and  also  entirely  their  affair. 
And  then,  taking  account  of  another  illustration  of  the  way 
in  which  history  repeats  itself,  with  so  little  modification  by 
moral  forces,  we  must  shape  our  conduct  accordingly." 

It  was  apparent  before  the  war  was  over  that  it  would  bring 
to  the  Pacific  immediate  commercial  prosperity  and  a  great 
industrial  future.  American  products  would  be  more  than 
ever  a  necessity  in  Asia,  and  American  goods  find  favor  more 
and  more  in  Australia  and  South  America.  The  Pacific 
United  States  were  now  in  a  position  to  take  the  lead  in  com- 
merce and  industries  in  all  eastern  Asiatic  countries.  New 
fields  were  offered  for  the  extension  of  American  industry, 
new  openings  for  investment,  and  new  enterprises  for  the 
energies  of  active  young  men.  Opportunities  for  business 
were  offered  in  the  newly  conquered  and  annexed  islands,  but 


THE  AWAKENING  69 

perhaps  not  better  than  those  existing  in  most  parts  of  the 
United  States.  First  of  all  capital  was  required;  then  these 
tropical  lands  were  not  the  place  for  white  labor,  though  a 
limited  number  of  young  Americans  might  find  employment 
and  advancement  as  clerks  and  managers.  The  islands  of 
Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Hawaii,  the  Ladrones,  and  the  Philippines 
will  be  no  inconsiderable  factor  in  supplying  the  United 
States  with  the  $250,000,000  worth  of  tropical  products  annu- 
ally consumed.  Tropical  lands  have  acquired  a  more  pro- 
nounced value  since  the  war,  for  the  fact  is  now  better  under- 
stood that  the  land  is  limited  which  will  successfully  grow 
those  great  requirements  of  civilization,  coffee,  tobacco,  and 
sugarcane. 

The  problems  of  Cuba,  the  Hawaiian  islands,  and  the  Nicar- 
agua canal,  which  for  a  half  century  had  been  discussed,  were 
solved  by  the  war  on  the  instant  and  without  friction.  The 
canal  became  a  palpable  necessity;  Cuban  freedom  was  the 
primary  issue;  possession  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  was  deemed 
essential  to  the  peace  and  security  of  our  Pacific  seaboard. 
An  impetus  was  given  to  interoceanic  canal  projects,  though 
their  advance  was  hampered  by  politics  in  legislation.  Porto 
Rico,  Nicaragua,  Hawaii,  and  the  Philippines  are  nearly  on  a 
latitudinal  line,  which  fact  carries  its  own  commercial  signifi- 
cance. The  British  admiralty  authorities  at  once  conceived 
the  plan  of  converting  Kingston  harbor  into  a  naval  station 
and  dockyard  of  the  first  grade,  making  of  Jamaica  a  second 
Gibraltar. 

There  are  always  to  be  found  in  every  legislative  body  men 
who  will  oppose  any  measure,  no  matter  how  essential  it  may 
be  or  how  palpably  advantageous  to  the  commonwealth. 
They  oppose  upon  either  instinct  or  interest.  Enough  of 
such  men  would  stifle  to  destruction  all  prosperity,  and  kill 
any  country.  Though  always  favored  with  some  such  in 
congress,  let  us  be  thankful  they  are  not  many.  Opinions  are 
so  easily  influenced  by  self-interests.  It  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  a  railroad  man  should  ever  be  brought  to  see  any 
benefit  to  accrue  from  the  Nicaragua  canal.  One  senator 
stoutly  opposed  expansion,  "because  of  its  conflict  with  the 
sugar-beet  interests  of  our  state,  and  the  damage  to  American 
labor."  That  is  to  say,  the  whole  United  States  must  forever 
forego  progress  for  fear  of  injuring  an  insignificant  industry 


70  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

or  of  giving  work  to  Chinamen.  An  order  of  statesmanship 
new  to  Americans  is  now  demanded,  a  statesmanship  able  to 
adjust  colonial  interests  and  govern  colonial  dependencies;  a 
statesmanship  broad  and  enlightened  enough  to  deliver  from 
anarchy  strange  peoples,  and  teach  them  the  blessings  of 
liberty,  humanity,  and  self-government;  above  all  a  less  self- 
ish statesmanship,  one  less  given  to  place-seeking  and  dema- 
gogism. 

Under  the  present  dispensation  it  is  ordained  that  progress 
shall  be  ever  a  struggle  between  the  better  and  the  worse, 
and  that  to  the  strong  it  is  given  to  determine  the  issue.  The 
late  conflict  with  Spain  is  but  one  in  a.  series  of  many  con- 
flicts for  the  self-emancipation  of  mankind,  which  may  be 
followed  along  the  highways  of  history  from  the  time  of  King 
John  to  the  time  of  Washington  and  Lincoln.  In  the  early 
ages  a  vast  despotism  overwhelmed  and  blinded  the  human 
race,  and  from  that  day  to  this  man  has  had  to  fight  for  his 
freedom.  In  this  war  we  were  fighting  for  freedom,  if  not 
for  ourselves  then  for  our  neighbor.  While  we  were  secur- 
ing our  own  independence,  Cuba  should  have  been  securing 
hers,  as  others  of  her  race  were  doing  shortly  afterward,  and 
so  continued  until  America  for  the  most  part  became  an 
America  of  republics. 

We  find  in  the  American  people,  to  a  greater  extent  than 
was  ever  before  realized,  and  as  is  equally  found  in  no  other 
people,  inherent  forces  evolving  the  highest  good.  Our  altru- 
ism is  of  the  homely  practical  kind,  and  of  whose  strength 
and  capabilities  we  are  scarcely  conscious  until  occasion  brings 
them  out.  Interested  as  we  are  in  so  much  that  is  selfish,  the 
mind  dwells  little  on  disinterested  duty,  so  that  we  scarcely 
recognize  it  as  such  when  it  comes,  but  rather  regard  it  as 
the  old  selfishness  in  some  new  guise.  And  so  perhaps  it  is; 
but  better  that  than  the  low  brutal  selfishness  of  egoism. 

As  the  fifteenth  century  was  the  transition  period  from  the 
middle  ages  to  modern  times,  with  the  removal  of  the  seat  of 
civilization  from  eastern  to  western  Europe,  so  may  the  twen- 
tieth century  become  the  period  of  a  new  transition  from  the 
present  to  a  yet  higher  culture,  with  the  removal  of  the  seats 
of  empire  and  progress  from  Europe  to  America,  and  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  The  better  to  realize  the  broad 
significance  of  this  conquest  of  the  Spaniards,  this  uplifting 


THE   AWAKENING  71 

of  international  ideals,  the  advance  of  humane  thought  and 
action,  nobler  perceptions  of  liberty  and  human  rights,  im- 
agine the  result  in  case  of  our  defeat; -imagine  the  arrest  of 
progress,  retrogression,  national  paralysis,  the  iniquities  of 
Spain  established  as  the  proper  ideal  of  Christian  civilization, 
and  liberty,  humanity,  and  the  principles  of  republicanism 
hurled  into  the  dust.  What  greater  calamity  could  have  come 
upon  the  world  than  the  defeat  of  the  United  States  by  the 
Spaniards  in  the  year  of  Ninety-eight ?  Think  of  it!  Medie- 
valism triumphant;  the  baser  parts  of  Christian  civilization 
as  represented  in  the  Latin  race,  triumphant;  tyranny,  cru- 
elty, wrong,  injustice,  barbarity,  all  triumphant ! 


Perhaps  no  questions  affecting  the  interests  of  any  people 
»vere  ever  more  fully  discussed  than  those  relating  to  the  dis- 
position of  the  conquered  islands.  Were  we  caught  in  the 
meshes  of  an  enforced  imperialism,  or  were  we  still  free  agents 
to  exercise  our  judgment  in  the  matter,  and  if  so  what  should 
be  our  determination  ?  Paramount  over  all  was  the  question, 
What  shall  we  do  with  the  Philippines  ?  Shall  we  give  them 
back  to  Spain;  shall  we  turn  them  over  to  be  partitioned 
among  the  European  powers,  the  United  States  government  re- 
taining its  share ;  shall  we  sell  them  to  some  European  govern- 
ment, or  to  Japan ;  turn  them  over  to  the  natives  and  give  them 
autonomy,  with  or  without  a  protectorate ;  or  keep  them,  and 
if  so  under  what  form  of  government,  military  rule,  or  civil, 
colonial  or  territorial,  or  full  statehood  ?  As  to  Cuba,  we  were 
pledged  to  autonomy ;  Porto  Rico  we  would  take  as  a  relic 
of  the  war  or  partial  indemnity;  but  the  Philippines? 

Shall  we  expand  and  assume  dictatorship  over  distant  tropi- 
cal territory  which  we  will  never  colonize,  or  rest  content  over 
home  affairs?  If  we  keep  these  islands,  we  adjoin  European 
possessions  in  Asia  at  a  point  where  war  is  most  likely  to  break 
out,  in  which  case  our  dignity  would  require  their  defence. 

Do  we  want  expansion?  Do  we  want  empire  in  the  East? 
Do  we  want  to  mingle  in  the  quarrels  of  the  Europeans  over 
their  lootings  of  the  Asiatics? 

Do  we  want  these  far  away  tropical  isles  with  their  hybrid 
inhabitants?  Have  we  not  already  absorbed  in  the  veins  of 
pur  republicanism,  in  the  stolid  African  and  the  low  European, 


72  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

enough  of  the  scum  of  humanity  ?  Were  it  not  better  to  prune 
and  cultivate  than  to  grow  more  weeds  ? 

Do  we  desire  eternal  isolation  ?  Do  we  wish  forever  to  con- 
fine our  energies,  our  intelligence,  our  influence  within  their 
present  limits  ?  Do  we  wish  to  restrict  the  benefits  of  our  free 
and  ennobling  institutions  to  ourselves  alone  ? 

Can  we  do  better  in  these  respects  in  the  future  than  in 
the  past?  Have  we  not  prospered  in  the  pursuance  of  our 
present  policy?  Why  plunge  into  the  intricacies  of  the  un- 
known when  we  have  a  happy  experience  for  a  guide?  Did 
not  Washington  and  Jefferson,  the  founders  of  this  republic, 
know  the  best  course  for  a  republic  to  pursue?  Can  we  im- 
prove upon  the  wisdom  of  those  whose  teachings  have  made 
us  what  we  are? 

All  the  world  was  curious  as  to  what  America  would  do,  and 
free  with  advice  as  to  what  she  should  do.  But  more  especially 
in  our  own  country  rose  the  talk  higher  than  the  west  wind, 
where  every  newspaper,  every  college  undergraduate,  every  ed- 
ucated or  uneducated  person  held  his  own  opinion,  and  was 
by  no  means  backward  in  expressing  it;  and  where  too  the 
subject  assumed  an  endless  variety  of  phases. 

Some  genius  for  statistics,  out  of  500  leading  newspapers 
of  the  United  States,  counted  up  those  for  and  those  against 
imperialism,  or  expansion,  with  this  result :  In  the  south  there 
were  55  for  expansion  and  64  against  it;  in  the  west,  for 
expansion  126,  against  expansion  51;  in  New  England,  for 
expansion  61,  against  it  42;  in  the  middle  states,  for  expan- 
sion 63,  against  it  36;  summary,  for  expansion  305,  against 
expansion  193. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    FAR   EAST 

THE  history  of  China  begins  in  fable  and  ends  in  foolish- 
ness. It  has  been  running  so  long  that  there  is  little  wonder 
its  pace  is  now  somewhat  slow.  Unfortunately  the  Tartar 
element  intruded  itself  and  mixed  up  the  dynasties,  so  that 
the  line  from  the  gods  is  not  quite  so  direct  as  in  Japan,  but 
it  is  longer,  and  therefore  older,  and  therefore  more  respect- 
able. They  have  almost  as  many  gods  as  their  neighbor, 
though  they  did  not  make  them  quite  so  rapidly.  War,  here, 
has  not  been  so  frequent  as  in  Christian  lands,  where  the  gos- 
pel of  peace  preached  in  the  pulpit  is  fought  to  a  conclusion 
in  the  field.  We  find  narrated  in  the  history  of  China  oc- 
casional rebellions,  but  they  have  arisen  from  temporal  causes, 
and  not  from  spiritual  dogmas. 

The  history  of  China  is  very  long;  I  shall  not  attempt  to 
tell  it  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  reign  of  Whang-ti  began 
2758  B  C,  though  the  first  emperor,  Fuhhi,  had  flourished 
2,000  years  before.  So  broad  and  so  old  was  the  land,  that 
many  gods  were  made,  and  many  people  with  whom  to  feed 
them,  and  dynasties  followed  in  quick  succession,  that  is  to 
say,  half  a  thousand  years  apart,  as  the  great  Yu  rulership, 
the  Hin  dynasty,  the  Shang,  Chau,  Tsin,  and  scores  of  other 
dynasties.  Not  to  be  outdone,  the  Japanese  historian  will  re- 
cite you  off  scores  of  mikados  to  one  dynasty,  and  as  many 
dynasties  as  you  may  choose  to  have.  History  is  plentiful  and 
cheap  on  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific,  and  though  taught  in 
the  schools  the  students  become  greybeards  before  they  reach 
the  last  chapter. 

The  Chinese  race  is  of  celestial  origin;  it  had  no  beginning, 
and  will  have  no  end,  that  is  to  say  if  the  European  powers 
graciously  permit  continued  existence.  So  the  sages  hold, 
pointing  at  the  same  time  to  a  little  indigenous  band,  roam- 

73 


7-4  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

ing  naked  and  houseless  and  fireless  so  very  long  ago  in  the 
forests  of  Shan-se,  the  Chinese  cradle  of  the  race.  From 
these,  whether  from  heaven  or. earth,  sprang  the  people  whom 
the  great  Jenghis  conquered;  for  every  where  it  appears  that 
nature  provides  a  people  for  stronger  nations  to  conquer,  and 
a  religion  for  stronger  religions  to  subvert.  Fire  came  as 
usual  from  the  friction  of  two  sticks,  and  fire  discovered  iron 
to  the  Chinese  as  it  discovered  glass  to  the  Phrcnicians,  by 
the  burning  of  wood  in  the  former  case  on  brown  earth,  and 
in  the  latter  on  sand.  The  princess  Se-ling-she,  4,000  years 
ago  and  more,  saw  the  silk-worms  make  their  cocoons,  the 
fine  filaments  of  which  she  unravelled  and  wove  into  a  web 
of  cloth.  China's  history  is  full,  as  well  as  long;  and  for 
what  follows,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Confucius,  Laon-tze, 
and  Mencius,  whose  writings  fill  a  house. 

Ancient  history  enters  China  from  the  northwest,  and  fol- 
lows the  course  of  the  river  Hoang-ho,  on  whose  banks  were 
erected  the  cities  of  those  who  conquered  the  aborigines,  and 
began  the  building  of  the  Chinese  empire,  long  before  the 
savage  tribes  in  the  valleys  of  the  Yangtse  were  molested  by 
strangers  from  afar,  which  was  at  least  2,000  years  ago. 

The  attention  of  mediaeval  Europe  was  freshly  drawn  to 
Cathay,  as  China  was  then  called,  by  the  conquests  of  Jenghis 
Khan  in  the  13th  century;  but  1,500  years  before  this  the 
flowery  land  was  known  to  the  ancients,  and  mapped  by 
Ptolemy  as  a  terra  incognita,  beyond  which  was  neither  habi- 
tation nor  navigation.  Before  the  return  of  Marco  Polo  from 
his  wanderings  in  China,  Joannes  de  Piano  Carpini,  com- 
panion of  St  Francis  of  Assisi,  who  was  present  at  the  Mongol 
invasion  of  eastern  Europe  in  1211,  and  in  Mongolia  three 
years  later,  and  saw  the  Chinese  in  the  bazaars  of  the  great 
Khan's  camps,  wrote  the  first  description  we  have  of  the 
Kitai,  as  he  called  the  Cathayans.  "  Now  these  Kitai,"  he 
says,  "  are  heathen  men,  and  have  a  written  character  of  their 
own.  They  seem,  indeed,  to  be  kindly  and  polished  folks 
enough.  They  have  no  beard,  and  in  character  of  counte- 
nance have  a  considerable  resemblance  to  the  Mongols,  but 
are  not  so  broad  in  the  face.  They  have  a  peculiar  language. 
Their  betters  as  craftsmen  in  every  art  practised  by  man  are 
not  to  be  found  in  the  whole  world.  Their  country  is  very 
rich  in  corn,  in  wine,  in  gold  and  silver,  in  silk,  and  in  every 


THE  FAR  EAST  75 

kind  of  produce  tending  to  the  support  of  mankind."  And 
by  another  of  these  Franciscan  friars,  William  of  Rubruk,  in 
1253,  a  yet  more  graphic  account  is  given  of  the  people  of 
China.  "  Further  on  is  Great  Cathay,"  he  writes,  "  which  1 
take  to  be  the  country  anciently  called  the  Land  of  the 
Seres,  for  the  best  silk  stuffs  are  still  got  from  them.  Those 
Cathayans  are  little  fellows,  speaking  much  through  the  nose, 
and  as  is  general  with  all  those  eastern  people  their  eyes  are 
very  narrow.  They  are  first  rate  artists  in  every  kind,  and' 
their  physicians  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  virtues 
of  herbs,  and  an  admirable  skill  in  diagnosis  by  the  pulse. 
The  common  money  of  Cathay  consists  of  pieces  of  cotton 
paper,  about  a  palm  in  length  and  breadth,  upon  which  cer- 
tain lines  are  printed  resembling  the  seal  of  Mangu  Khan. 
They  do  their  writing  with  a  pencil,  such  as  painters  paint 
with,  and  a  single  character  of  theirs  comprehends  several 
letters,  so  as  to  form  a  whole  word."  Thus  in  these  mission- 
ary epistles  we  have  not  only  the  first  written  account  of  the 
Chinese  people,  their  appearance,  character,  manufactures, 
and  style  of  writing,  but  the  first  account  of  paper  money  in 
use  in  any  age  or  nation. 

The  Polos  returned  to  Venice,  their  native  city,  in  1295, 
after  an  absence  in  the  East  of  a  quarter  of  a  century.  They 
had  wonderful  tales  to  tell.  Thus  through  travellers  mer- 
chants and  missionaries,  China  became  known  gradually  dur- 
ing the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  to  the  European 
world,  and  a  trade,  at  first  chiefly  of  silk  goods,  was  estab- 
lished, by  Mohammedans  as  well  as  by  Christians. 

This  is  the  story  ef  the  Polos.  In  the  proud  and  opulent 
city  of  Venice,  in  the  year  1250,  there  lived  a  nobleman  who 
had  three  sons,  two  of  whom  were  merchants,  for  commerce 
then  was  held  in  high  esteem,  not  even  the  greatest  dignitaries 
deeming  it  beneath  them  to  engage  in  lucrative  and  extensive 
trade.  Imbued  with  the  adventurous  spirit  of  the  age,  the 
merchant  brothers  set  out  on  distant  travels,  that  they  might 
enlarge  their  knowledge  of  the  world  while  increasing  their 
wealth.  Their  first  venture  was  a  trading  voyage  to  Con- 
stantinople, where  they  sold  their  merchandise  at  good  ad- 
vantage. 

While  considering  what  next  to  do,  they  heard  of  the  west- 
ern Tartars,  of  their  ravages  in  certain  provinces  of  Europe 


76  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

and  Asia,  and  who  thus  had  gathered  much  wealth  where- 
with to  purchase  whatever  they  might  fancy.  Thereupon  the 
brother  merchants  took  all  their  money,  and  with  it  bought 
rich  goods  for  the  Orient,  gold-embroidered  scarfs,  finely 
wrought  metal  work,  and  cut  jewels,  whatever  they  thought 
would  prove  most  pleasing  to  the  barbaric  eye.  Then  they 
crossed  the  Euxine,  and  proceeding  eastward  encountered 
strange  sights,  and  met  with  many  wonderful  experiences. 
Many  years  were  thus  employed  by  the  Polo  brothers,  for 
such  was  their  name,  between  Italy  and  the  dominions  of  the 
grand  Khan,  with  whom  they  became  friendly. 

Once  while  absent  on  a  journey  was  born  to  Nicolo,  the 
younger  of  the  two  brothers,  a  son,  who  was  named  Marco, 
and  who  on  reaching  the  age  of  seventeen  years,  accompanied 
his  father  on  his  travels.  In  time  they  found  themselves  far 
from  home,  having  wandered  toward  the  eastern  limits  of 
Asia,  and  even  sailing  on  the  waters  that  border  it.  For 
many  years  they  dwelt  at  the  imperial  court  at  Peking,  favored 
by  the  emperor,  who  would  not  let  them  go  when  they  begged 
permission  to  return  once  more  to  their  native  land. 

"  What  do  you  desire?  "  demanded  the  great  Kublai.  "  Is 
it  further  gain,  you  may  command  it.  If  it  is  aught  that  I  can 
give,  you  shall  have  it.  If  you  want  nothing,  then  rest  con- 
tent where  you  are." 

Barbarian  logic,  supported  by  barbarian  will  and  power,  is 
unanswerable.  In  vain  the  Venetians  longed  for  home,  and 
feared  they  never  should  see  it. 

But  one  day  came  to  them  deliverance  in  the  guise  of  an 
oriental  romance,  which  might  have  served  as  a  suggestion 
to  the  author  of  Lalla  Rookh.  It  happened  in  this  way. 
Chief  ruler  of  Persia  was  a  Moghul-Tartar  prince,  grand 
nephew  of  the  emperor,  who  having  lost  his  principal  wife,  a 
princess  of  the  imperial  blood,  and  unwilling  to  form  an  al- 
liance with  any  inferior  family,  had  sent  a  deputation  to  his 
sovereign,  and  the  head  of  his  house,  to  ask  from  him  a  wife 
from  their  own  lineage.  The  request  was  granted.  A  young 
princess  of  rare  beauty  and  accomplishments  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  ambassadors,  who  with  a  brilliant  retinue  set 
out  on  their  journey  to  Persia.  But  such  was  the  unsettled 
condition  of  the  country  that  they  were  unable  to  proceed 
far,  and  were  forced  to  return. 


THE  FAR  EAST  77 

Seeing  the  embarrassment  of  his  friends  and  patrons,  and 
thinking  also  of  Italy  and  home,  Marco  stepped  forward  and 
informed  his  sovereign  that  he  had  just  returned  from  a 
voyage  to  the  islands  of  the  Indies,  and  he  would  pledge  his 
life  safely  to  conduct  the  imperial  party  through  those  same 
seas  to  Persia.  The  offer  was  accepted;  and  this  is  the  first 
of  the  voyages  on  the  Pacific  of  which  I  have  an  account  to 
present. 

Fourteen  ships  were  provided,  each  having  four  masts  and 
as  many  sails,  and  five  of  which  carried  crews  of  250  men  each. 
The  vessels  were  provisioned  for  three  years.  The  fleet, 
with  the  ambassadors,  the  princess,  and  the  Venetians  being 
ready  for  departure,  friendly  leave  was  taken  of  the  emperor, 
who  made  them  presents  of  rubies  and  other  jewels  of  great 
value,  and  furnished  them  also  with  the  golden  tablet,  which 
assured  them  of  good  treatment,  and  all  necessary  supplies  in 
every  part  of  the  dominions  of  the  grand  khan.  Thus  in  the 
year  1291  this  expedition  dropped  down  the  river  Pei-ho, 
from  Peking,  and  launched  itself  on  the  waters  of  the  great 
Pacific. 

Out  of  the  gulf  of  Pe-che-lee,  through  the  strait  and  into 
Hoang-hai,  or  the  Yellow  sea,  they  sailed,  down  past  Formosa, 
through  the  Fo-kien  strait  and  into  the  China  sea,  fighting 
off  the  pirates  at  Luzon,  hiding  from  the  terrible  monsoon  at 
Malacca,  and  escaping  all  the  dangers  of  the  deep,  they  con- 
tinued their  course  for  three  months  until  they  came  to  the 
island  of  Sumatra,  or  Java  minor,  where  were  eight  kingdoms 
governed  by  as  many  kings,  and  whose  trade  was  in  spices  and 
drugs.  Passing  through  the  Indian  sea,  for  eighteen  months 
more  they  continued  their  voyage,  losing  by  death  600  of  the 
men,  and  of  the  three  ambassadors  only  one  remained  alive. 
Finally  they  landed  at  Persia,  and  were  informed  that  the 
king  was  dead,  but  his  son  would  welcome  the  princess,  and 
make  her  his  wife. 

So  great  was  the  celebrity  of  the  Zipangu  isles,  that  Kublai- 
khan  coveted  their  conquest,  and  fitted  out  a  fleet  for  that 
purpose,  having  on  board  a  large  body  of  troops.  The  expe- 
dition was  placed  in  command  of  two  generals,  between 
whom,  though  they  crossed  the  intervening  sea  in  safety, 
there  arose  a  quarrel  which  defeated  the  king's  purpose.  One 
fortified  city,  however,  was  carried  by  assault;  and  the  heads 


78  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

of  all  the  inhabitants  cut  off,  of  all  but  eight  persons,  "  who 
by  the  efficacy  of  a  diabolical  charm,  consisting  of  a  jewel  or 
amulet  introduced  into  the  right  arm  between  the  skin  and 
the  flesh,  were  rendered  secure  from  the  effects  of  iron  either 
to  kill  or  wound." 

Kublai  Khan  was  of  medium  stature,  well  formed,  with 
fair  complexion,  black  eyes,  and  well-shaped  prominent  nose. 
He  had  four  wives  and  unnumbered  concubines.  His  palaces 
were  many,  and  in  splendor  beyond  the  power  of  words  to  de- 
scribe. The  better  to  supply  Kanbalu,  the  city  of  the  sover- 
eign as  the  name  implies,  a  great  canal  was  dug,  and  store- 
houses built  for  grain. 

The  sea  of  China,  Marco  assures  us,  contains  7,440  islands. 
They  are  mostly  inhabited  and  contain  much  gold;  many 
trees  grow  there,  and  spices  and  drugs,  particularly  lignum- 
aloes  and  pepper.  To  Manji,  or  southern  China,  merchants 
resort  from  India  and  Arabia.  There  are  no  sheep  there,  but 
many  oxen  and  swine,  also  buffaloes  and  goats. 

In  regard  to  thirteenth  century  trade  between  China  and 
India,  it  is  well  known  that  even  in  later  times  vessels  from 
southern  China  were  seldom  seen  in  the  Indian  ocean;  never- 
theless there  is  evidence  of  early  intercourse  aside  from  the 
statements  of  the  great  Venetian  traveller,  concerning  whom 
it  is  now  admitted  by  the  best  authorities  that  he  sometimes 
told  the  truth.  Some  such  assurance  we  need  when  we  hear 
him  speak  of  Zipangu,  that  is  to  say  Japan,  placing  the  island 
1,500  miles  from  the  coast  of  China,  and  filling  it  with  people 
of  fair  complexion,  and  gold  without  limit,  though  the  writer 
admits  he  never  was  there.  For  that  matter  neither  had  been 
any  of  those  to  whom  he  told  his  tale,  nor  had  any  one  else  in 
Europe  ever  before  seen  or  heard  of  this  quarter  of  the  globe; 
hence  he  had  no  fear  of  contradiction  when  he  affirmed  of 
Japan,  that  "  the  entire  roof  of  the  emperor's  palace  is  cov- 
ered with  a  plating  of  gold,  in  the  same  manner  that  we  cover 
houses  with  lead.  The  ceilings  of  the  halls  are  of  the  same 
precious  metal;  many  of  the  apartments  have  small  tables 
of  pure  gold  considerably  thick,  and  the  windows  have  also 
golden  ornaments.  So  vast,  indeed,  are  the  riches  of  the 
palace  that  it  is  impossible  to  convey  an  idea  of  them.  In 
this  island  there  are  pearls  also,  in  large  quantities,  of  a  red 
or  pink  colour,  round  in  shape  and  of  great  size,  equal  in  value 


THE  FAR  EAST  71) 

to  or  even  exceeding  that  of  the  white  pearls."  The  causes 
given  of  this  great  concentration  of  wealth  in  this  island  are 
that  few  merchants  visit  there,  and  that  the  king  will  not 
permit  any  of  the  gold,  or  pearls,  or  precious  stones  to  be  sent 
away. 

Franciscan  friars,  who  had  been  sent  on  missions  to  the 
great  Khan  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  also 
brought  back  information  of  civilized  peoples  occupying  the 
shores  of  a  vast  ocean  in  the  farthest  east.  The  monk  Rubru- 
quis,  sent  as  missionary  into  the  khan's  dominions,  told  of  the 
wealth  of  eastern  Asia,  their  cities  of  silver  walls  and  golden 
towers.  And  yet  more  wild  were  the  statements  of  Sir  John 
Mandeville,  the  narrative  of  whose  adventures  found  a  larger 
number  of  still  more  credulous  readers.  The  stories  told  by 
these  missionaries,  as  well  as  by  Polo  the  Venetian  and  Mande- 
ville the  Englishman,  and  the  specimens  of  the  marvellous 
wealth  of  the  Orient,  filled  Europe  with  amazement  and  envy, 
and  but  for  the  exclusiveness  of  intervening  governments, 
protected  commerce  overland  between  eastern  Asia  and  west- 
ern Europe  would  have  become  a  regulated  system  prior  to 
1343,  when  the  Venetians  obtained  the  exclusive  privilege 
from  the  Egyptian  ruler  of  sending  trading  vessels  to  Egyp- 
tian and  Syrian  ports,  and  succeeded  in  establishing  agencies 
at  Alexandria  and  Damascus,  with  factories  in  central  and 
southern  Asia.  In  due  time  the  traffic  became  extensive  and 
remunerative,  spices  being  brought  from  the  isles  of  the  Ind- 
ian ocean,  and  later  from  the  Moluccas  and  Spice  islands, 
both  by  way  of  Arabia  and  the  river  Nile,  and  also  by  the 
African  coast  and  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  Herodotus  has 
much  to  say  of  this  traffic  in  the  days  of  Necho,  king  of  Egypt, 
when  the  Pho3nicians  sought  the  Southern  ocean  by  way  of 
the  Red  sea,  while  Pliny  speaks  of  an  account  by  Hanno  of  a 
voyage  of  the  Carthaginians  from  Cadiz  to  the  end  of  Arabia. 
In  a  word,  while  yet  the  richly  laden  caravans  were  crossing 
the  deserts,  and  long  before  the  advent  of  Prince  Henry  of 
Portugal,  or  of  Vasco  da  Gama,  the  belief  obtained  that  India 
could  be  reached  by  sailing  round  Africa,  just  as  it  was  the 
current  opinion  that  the  eastern  side  of  India  could  be 
reached  by  sailing  west  long  before  Columbus  appeared  upon 
the  scene.  To  the  terror  of  Christendom,  within  the  short 
period  of  twenty-six  years  the  Moguls  advanced  from  Peking 
and  the  great  wall  of  China  to  Cracow  and  Liegnitz. 


80  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

The  great  wall,  from  whose  summit  one  obtains  a  fine  view 
of  history,  was  erected  by  the  Chinese  not  so  much  to  fence 
themselves  in  as  to  fence  themselves  out.  On  the  other  side 
of  it  from  their  enemies,  they  had  all  time  and  all  space  for 
purposes  of  expansion.  Prior  to  this  epoch,  since  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world  there  had  been  but  three  dynasties,  the  dy- 
nasties of  Hia,  2205-1766  B  C;  of  Shang,  1766-1122  B  C;  and 
of  Chow  1122-255  B  C;  then  came  Chin-shi,  who  built  the 
wall.  Entering  from  the  northwest  the  valley  of  the  Hoang- 
ho,  these  twenty  centuries  had  elapsed  before  the  immigrants 
placed  foot  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Yangtse.  All  this  period 
they  had  in  which  to  fight  and  clear  the  country  of  its  savages, 
which  was  their  chief  occupation  during  the  first  dynasty, 
leaving  time  nevertheless  to  keep  alive  their  meagre  civiliza- 
tion, the  seeds  of  which,  with  their  invention  of  letters,  they 
had  brought  with  them  into  this  far  away  southeast.  The 
second  dynasty  was  their  days  of  feudalism,  which  indeed  ex- 
tended through  the  third,  attended  during  the  latter  epoch  by 
statesmen  and  philosophers  like  Confucius  and  Mencius,  who 
arose  to  teach  purer  ethics  and  a  higher  culture. 

During  the  twenty  centuries  following  the  building  of  the 
great  wall,  expansion  continued,  the  celestials  crossing  the 
Yangtse,  which  flows  down  to  Shanghai,  and  long  afterward 
the  Si-kiang  of  Canton,  leaving  imperial  Peking  far  away  in 
the  north,  and  doubling  the  domain  of  the  first  three  dynas- 
ties. A  very  great  man  was  the  emperor  Chin-shi,  not  only 
in  building  so  large  a  wall  from  the  desert  to  the  sea,  but  in 
founding  a  new  dynasty,  the  dynasty  of  Chin,  whence  China. 
And  although  expansion  continued,  feudalism  was  abandoned, 
and  reconstruction  and  centralization  began.  And  to  blot 
out  forever  -the  old  order  of  things,  which  was  written  in  the 
books,  the  books  must  be  blotted  out;  so  Chin  ordered  all  the 
books  to  be  burned,  for  which  during  these  2,000  years  his 
name  has  been  duly  execrated;  and  as  the  learned  men  and 
philosophers  whose  minds  had  been  so  stored  with  the  con- 
tents of  the  books  that  they  were  able  to  teach  them  and  re- 
write them  from  memory,  these  too  must  be  blotted  out,  and 
so  the  emperor  Chin  had  460  of  them  killed.  Thus  were 
planted  by  the  builder  of  the  great  wall,  twenty  centuries  ago, 
the  seeds  of  exclusiveness  which  bear  fruit  to  this  day. 

Following  the  dynasty  of  Chin  came  that  of  Han,  covering 


THE  FAR  EAST  81 

469  years,  a  period  of  rest  and  industrial  recuperation,  guard- 
ed as  was  the  empire  by  the  great  wall  on  the  north,  and  with 
no  fears  of  inroads  from  the  seaboard  side,  or  from  beyond 
the  great  rivers  of  the  south.  Under  these  benign  influences 
learning  revived,  and  Buddhism  came  and  found  a  home. 
Paper  was  invented,  books  multiplied,  and  Confucianism, 
which  had  received  a  severe  blow  from  the  burning  of  the 
books,  came  again  to  the  front.  Poetry  and  the  drama  rose 
to  prominence  during  the  Tang  dynasty,  618-905  A  D;  and 
with  the  Sung  dynasty,  960-1278,  speculative  philosophy  ap- 
peared, with  profound  thought  and  exposition.  The  Yuen,  or 
Mongol  dynasty,  of  Tartar  origin,  1260-1341  marks  the  com- 
ing of  Kublai  Khan,  whom  neither  the  great  wall  nor  the 
great  rivers  nor  mountains  nor  deserts  could  longer  keep  out, 
and  by  whom  was  completed  the  grand  canal  from  Hangchau 
to  Peking,  700  miles  in  length,  and  of  far  more  utility  than 
was  ever  the  great  wall.  Next  was  the  Ming  dynasty,  extend- 
ing down  to  1644,  during  which  the  Manchus,  a  Tartar  tribe 
occupying  the  country  northeast  of  the  great  wall,  came  down 
upon  the  empire,  and  finally  made  themselves  masters  of  all 
China.  Wisdom  as  well  as  courage  characterized  the  Manchus, 
who  accepted  with  the  country  its  institutions,  and  ruled  with 
conservatism  and  moderation.  Among  the  prominent  rulers 
of  the  modern  period  was  the  emperor  Kanghi,  later  the  em- 
press dowager  Tszhi,  who,  after  the  death  of  her  husband, 
the  emperor  Heinfung,  became  queen  regent,  ruling  first  for 
her  son  and  afterward  for  her  nephew.  The  continued  policy 
of  conservatism  and  centralization  by  the  Manchus,  under 
whose  regime  the  inhabitants  increased  nine  times  in  number, 
tended  more  and  more  to  crystallize  the  old  institutions  and 
arrest  progress. 

Lying  opposite  the  United  States,  and  of  about  the  same 
size,  climates  and  conditions  arc  somewhat  similar.  China  is  a 
great  plain,  from  which  rise  ranges  of  hills  and  mountains. 
There  are  many  rivers  and  canals,  which  constitute  the  high- 
ways of  the  country.  The  Hoang-ho,  or  Yellow  river,  rises  in 
the  Sea  of  Stars,  and  is  subject  to  destructive  overflows;  the 
Yangtse  Kiang,  the  most  valuable  to  commerce,  rises  in  the 
Min  mountains  of  Tibet,  and  flows  2,900  miles  into  the  Yel- 
low sea.  Important  likewise  as  a  commercial  and  irrigating 
waterway  is  the  artificial  canal  Yun-ho,  which  passes  through 


82  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

a  chain  of  lakes,  the  channel  in  places  being  at  one  time  above 
the  level  of  the  surrounding  country.  The  Han  Kiang  is  an- 
other important  river,  with  a  narrow  mouth  and  summer 
high-water  line.  The  largest  lake,  the  Tung-ting,  is  266  miles 
in  circumference,  while  the  Tai,  near  Soo  Chow  Foo,  150 
miles  in  circumference,  is  noted  for  the  beauty  of  its  sur- 
roundings. Nature  here  is  on  a  stupendous  scale,  which  tends 
to  overwhelm  man  and  perhaps  to  some  extent  dwarf  his  in- 
tellect. On  both  sides  of  the  lower  Yangtse  are  marsh  and 
lake  beds,  which  catch  the  overflow  during  inundation,  and 
at  other  times  are  dry.  The  river  is  navigable  for  the  largest 
steamboats  for  1,000  miles,  while  smaller  ones  may  penetrate 
the  western  provinces.  Eastern  China,  north  of  Hongkong, 
is  mostly  level,  in  places  low  and  marshy;  south  of  Hongkong 
it  is  more  hilly.  Western  China  is  mountainous,  chains  of 
highlands  traversing  the  country  southwest  and  northeast, 
having  for  the  most  part  the  trend  of  the  coast.  The  Yellow 
sea  takes  its  name  from  the  color  given  to  it  by  the  washings 
of  the  plains  brought  down  by  the  rivers,  and  which  is  build- 
ing out  the  continent  by  slow  degrees. 

The  yun-ho  is  a  system  of  formerly  dry  river  channels, 
connected  by  cuttings  with  lakes  and  marshes  so  as  to  form 
a  continuous  chain,  which  is  called  the  grand  canal.  It  is 
fed  at  its  highest  point  by  the  waters  of  the  Wan-ho,  which 
divide  and  flow  part  toward  the  Hoang-ho  and  the  gulf  of 
Pechili,  and  part  toward  the  Yangtse.  As  an  artificial  water- 
way this  yun-ho,  or  river  of  transports,  has  not  its  equal  in 
the  world,  and  as  a  specimen  of  engineering  skill  it  is  a  marvel. 
Its  general  appearance  is  that  of  a  large  winding  river.  In 
its  palmy  days,  when  fully  fed,  it  afforded  continuous  inland 
Avater  communication  from  Peking  to  Canton,  and  thus  by 
crossing  and  connecting  the  great  rivers  formed  a  network 
of  navigable  waters  thousands  of  miles  in  length,  and  unit- 
ing half  the  empire  and  hundreds  of  opulent  towns  and  cities. 
It  would  be  if  in  America  somewhat  like  uniting  the  head- 
waters of  the  Columbia  Colorado  and  Missouri,  cutting  across 
to  the  Eraser  and  Yukon,  and  joining  Hudson  bay  the  St 
Lawrence  and  Hudson  river  by  way  of  the  great  lakes  with  the 
Mississippi,  thus  giving  us  not  only  a  transoceanic  canal  but 
a  continuous  inland  waterway  longitudinally  from  the  Arctic 
ocean  to  the  jrulf  of  Mexico.  And  these  are  the  people,  those 


THE  FAR  EAST  83 

who  conceived  and  executed  and  sustained  a  work  like  this, 
that  the  leopards  and  lions,  and  wild-cat  powers  of  the  world 
are  watching,  waiting  to  pounce  upon  and  devour  the  mo- 
ment a  decent,  or  even  indecent,  excuse  offers  itself! 

Kublai  Khan  was  the  author  of  this  canal,  and  Marco  Polo 
says  of  it:  "  You  must  understand  that  the  emperor  has  caused 
a  water  communication  to  be  made  from  this  city  of  Kwachau 
to  Cambulac,  in  the  shape  of  a  wide  and  deep  channel  dug 
between  stream  and  stream,  lake  and  lake,  forming  as  it  were 
a  great  river  on  which  large  vessels  can  ply." 

The  great  central  commercial  highway  from  Peking  to  cen- 
tral Asia  and  the  west  leads  to  Sian-fu,  thence  northwest 
through  the  valleys  of  Shansi  and  Kansu  to  the  Gobi  desert. 
Animals  for  transportation  are  oxen,  mules,  ponies,  donkeys, 
and  Mongolians,  the  last  named  being  the  burden-beasts  of 
the  sedan  chair.  All  travellers  describe  the  roads  as  the  worst 
in  the  world.  From  this  we  may  understand  why  a  Chinaman 
at  home  will  never  ride  where  he  can  walk,  and  in  the  United 
States  will  never  walk  where  he  can  ride.  The  two-hump 
Bactrian  camel,  used  in  the  Mongolian  trade,  is  seen  at  Peking. 

The  native  inhabitants  of  China  all  come  under  one  of 
three  categories,  the  aborigines,  who  were  driven  south,  where 
on  the  islands  and  mainland  some  of  them  are  still  found;  the 
civilized  Chinese,  who  came  in  from  the  northwest  and  sub- 
dued or  drove  out  the  aborigines;  and  the  Manchus,  a  tribe 
of  Tartars  of  Mongolian  affinities,  who  broke  through  the 
great  wall  on  the  northern  boundary  and  dominated  and 
shared  the  country  with  the  Chinese.  The  nineteen  provinces 
comprising  China  proper  and  aggregating  1,500,000  square 
miles,  are  somewhat  less  than  one-third  of  the  Chinese  em- 
pire, though  containing  nine-tenths  of  the  population,  and 
nearly  all  the  wealth.  The  outlying  region  is  but  little 
known,  and  much  of  it,  like  the  Gobi  desert,  Mongolia,  and 
the  highlands  of  Kokonor,  but  little  valued. 

England  and  Russia  both  have  their  eye  on  Tibet,  which 
when  occupied  will  be  entered  through  India.  Of  the  nine- 
teen provinces,  one  alone,  the  metropolitan  province  of  Chihli, 
in  which  is  situated  the1  capital  of  the  empire,  Peking,  has  a 
population  of  27,000,000.  The  industries  likewise  are  in  some 
degree  divided.  Thus  one  province  is  conspicuous  for  its  silk 
industry,  another  for  the  production  of  cotton  wheat  and 


8i  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

opium,  another  for  coal  iron  and  salt,  or  gold  silver  copper 
and  lead,  others  for  pulse  millet  and  maize,  barley  beans  and 
peas,  sugar  tea  and  tobacco,  straw  hats  and  fans,  fire-crackers 
and  matting,  and  fifty  other  things. 

We  little  realize  the  internal  commerce  of  China,  whose 
tonnage  is  said  to  be  greater  in  amount  than  that  of  all  other 
nations  combined.  The  Chinese  are  essentially  a  trading  peo- 
ple, and  their  myriads  of  boats  are  constantly  plying  the  vast 
network  of  rivers  and  canals  interlacing  their  million  and 
more  square  miles  of  territory.  The  chief  importations  be- 
sides opium,  metals,  and  furs,  have  been  cotton  and  woollen 
cloths.  Mining  has  been  restricted  by  the  primitive  methods 
employed  and  the  absence  of  machinery;  the  introduction  of 
mills  and  cotton  from  America  has  a  marked  effect  on  that 
industry.  Mercantile  companies  early  monopolized  the  trade 
with  China,  and  prior  to  1842  Canton  was  the  only  port  avail- 
able, since  which  date  Ningpo,  Shanghai,  and  several  other 
ports  have  been  opened  to  Europeans  and  Americans.  Upon 
the  withdrawal  of  the  East  India  company  in  1834,  a  struggle 
for  the  introduction  of  India  opium  into  China  on  the  part 
of  Great  Britain,  and  which  was  strenuously  opposed  by  the 
Chinese  government,  was  finally  successful,  England  succeed- 
ing in  forcing  the  drug  upon  the  empire  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet. 

One  of  the  finest  provinces  of  China  is  Szechuan,  in  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Yangtse,  where  the  foothills  and  the  plains 
come  together  forming  innumerable  highly  cultivated  cres- 
cent terraces,  on  which  stands  the  cedar  farmhouse  in  a  grove 
of  cypress,  with  here  and  there  the  more  pretentious  country 
residence  of  a  mandarin.  Now  and  then  on  a  rocky  eminence 
is  seen  a  temple  rich  in  color,  with  porcelain  front;  and  on 
the  lower  levels  manufactories,  as  flour  and  paper  mills  and 
distilleries,  while  in  the  towns  skilful  hands  are  busy  in  many 
industries,  as  straw-plaiting  and  hat-making,  silk-weaving, 
hide-dressing,  iron  brass  and  wood  work,  carving  and  gilding 
idols,  and  others  similar.  In  this  province  and  in  Yunnan 
are  suspension  bridges  of  stone  and  iron,  relics  of  the  past, 
wonderful  for  their  day,  and  by  no  'means  lightly  to  be  re- 
garded when  compared  with  works  of  the  present  time.  Con- 
sider the  grand  canal,  for  example,  and  the  great  wall,  the 
former  2,100  miles  long  and  connecting  41  cities,  and  the  lat- 
ter of  huge  dimensions  and  1,250  miles  in  length. 


THE  FAR  EAST  85 

The  fertile  valley  of  the  Min  is  intersected  by  innumerable 
irrigating  ditches,  and  is  highly  cultivated.  A  view  of  the 
Chengtu  plain,  with  its  bamboo  homes  half  hidden  in  the  foli- 
age, its  stately  temples,  and  busy  factories,  and  decorated 
bridges  with  roof  in  lacquer  and  gold,  is  like  a  chapter  out  of 
the  Persian  tales.  Thus  we  may  well  imagine  that  in  natural 
resources  China  is  one  of  the  richest  countries  in  the  world, 
and  would  be  one  of  the  most  powerful  were  the  people  united. 
Until  recently  she  has  never  realized  how  strong  she  is,  or 
might  be.  In  her  former  conflicts  with  western  nations,  she 
has  not  only  lacked  unity,  but  arms  and  confidence.  The 
war  ships  of  England  steaming  up  the  Canton  river  were  to 
the  frightened  inhabitants  monsters  of  destruction.  In  the 
recent  war  with  her  neighbor,  Japan  concentrated  her  forces, 
and  with  modern  war  appliances  threw  herself  on  China  as  on 
some  lazy  leviathan,  or  other  inert  unintelligent  mass,  which 
knew  not  its  own  or  the  enemy's  capabilities.  Famines  in 
China,  which  may  come  from  drought,  vermin,  or  inundation, 
are  often  severe  because  of  provincial  isolation,  and  the  dif- 
ficulty of  passage  and  the  transportation  of  food  over  moun- 
tain passes,  and  the  bad  roads  of  the  valleys. 

For  the  origin  of  Peking  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  chroni- 
cles of  Asia.  The  city  is  very  old;  perhaps  5,000  or  10,000 
years,  or  20,000  if  you  like.  At  all  events  it  fell  to  the  Tsin 
dynasty  222  B  C,  and  was  captured  by  Genghis  Khan  in  1215. 
It  is  now  divided  into  two  parts,  the  Tartar  quarter  of  twelve 
square  miles,  surrounded  by  a  buttressed  wall  fifty  feet  high 
and  forty  feet  thick,  and  within  which  are  the  imperial  and 
official  residences;  and  the  Chinese  section,  containing  the 
industrial  population,  with  their  houses,  shops,  and  mercan- 
tile warehouses.  The  circumference  of  the  dual  city  is  twenty 
miles,  and  the  population  two  millions.  Eound  the  imperial 
palace  a  wall  encloses  an  area  of  a  mile  square,  within  which 
none  may  enter  but  the  royal  family  and  those  connected 
therewith,  or  unless  occupying  some  high  official  position.  In 
the  Tartar  city  is  the  Lama  temple,  which  contains  a  statue 
of  Buddha  sixty  feet  in  height,  of  wood  and  clay  overlaid  with 
bronze. 

Peking  has  its  printing  quarter,  where  sellers  of  books  and 
engravers  live  and  labor,  Lieu-li-chang  being  the  Paternoster 
Row  of  the  capital,  and  where  in  a  narrow  side  street  is 


86  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

printed  the  Peking  Gazette,  containing  the  news  and  decrees 
of  the  government,  and  the  oldest  newspaper  in  the  world. 
But  the  leading  native  newspaper  of  China  is  the  Shen  Pao, 
or  Shanghai  Gazette,  published  since  1870,  while  Hongkong 
has  the  T sun-wan  Yat-po,  or  Universal  Circulating  Herald. 
A  Peking  reform  club  being  suppressed  by  government,  the 
work  was  continued  at  Shanghai  by  means  of  the  Chinese 
Progress  magazine. 

On  the  Wusung,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Yangtse,  is  Shang- 
hai, the  chief  commercial  city  of  China,  with  home  and  foreign 
sections,  and  in  all  a  population  of  a  million  or  more.  Here, 
as  probably  nowhere  else  in  the  world,  comparative  civiliza- 
tion can  be  studied,  the  contrast  being  not  only  distinctly 
marked  between  the  Chinese  and  other  nationalities,  but  be- 
tween other  nationalities  exclusive  of  the  Chinese.  The  for- 
eign quarter  is  well-built,  Americans  and  Europeans  living  in 
comfort  and  luxury.  All  in  the  line  of  progression,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  suggestion  made  by  the  assistant  grand 
secretary,  Sun  Chia  Nai,  chancellor  of  the  new  national  uni- 
versity of  Peking,  on  the  26th  of  July  1898  the  emperor  de- 
creed the  Shih  Wu  Pao,  or  Cliinese  Daily  Progress,  published 
at  Shanghai,  to  be  the  official  journal,  a  copy  to  be  presented 
to  the  emperor  for  his  perusal,  as  with  the  official  organs  of 
Tientsin,  Shanghai,  Hankau,  and  Canton,  the  journal  to  con- 
tain an  account  of  current  affairs,  and  to  speak  the  truth,  which 
quality  of  true  speaking  if  possible  to  be  called  forth  by  royal 
command  in  China,  is  indeed  a  new  departure  in  journalism. 

One  of  the  most  important  strategic  points  on  the  coast 
of  China  is  the  island  of  Chnsan,  south  of  Shanghai,  where 
the  shore  is  lined  with  important  ports  and  large  cities.  It  is 
fifty  miles  in  circumference,  and  its  fertile  valleys  are  capable 
of  supporting  quite  a  large  population. 

Hongkong  is  a  city  of  palaces,  ranged  tier  on  tier  up  the 
hillsides,  with  a  mountain  on  one  side  and  the  sea  on  the  other. 
There  are  the  residences  of  the  merchants,  with  colonnades 
and  verandas,  parks  and  gardens.  The  spacious  harbor  is  alive 
with  shipping,  foreign  steamers  of  war  mingling  with  the 
merchant  marine  of  the  world.  The  island  on  which  the  city 
stands  is  eleven  miles  long  and  three  miles  wide.  At  the  time 
of  its  cession  to  Great  Britain  in  1841  for  $200,000,  it  was 
an  almost  worthless  and  altogether  unattractive  place.  Over 


THE  FAR  EAST  87 

this  spot,  wrested  from  barbarism  by  shop-keeping  Europe, 
float  the  flags  of  all  the  nations.  England  and  opium  achieved 
Hongkong,  though  the  nation  is  now  not  proud  of  the  means 
by  which  it  was  accomplished;  yet  the  opium  infamies,  though 
leading  to  worse  results,  were  really  from  an  international  point 
of  view  no  worse  than  was  our  breaking  treaty  with  China, 
and  the  merciless  way  in  which  we  did  it,  bringing  cruel  in- 
justice on  many  innocent  persons.  Along  the  river  banks 
swarm  the  pig-tails  like  ants,  the  small  business  being  done 
mostly  by  women  with  babies  strapped  to  their  back.  Police- 
men here  are  imported  sikhs  from  India,  tall  dark  heavily 
bearded  fellows,  who  stand  always  ready  to  swallow  any  of- 
fending Chinaman.  The  large  businees  houses  become  quite 
wealthy,  and  money  is  freely  spent,  this  being  in  the  fullest 
sense  a  world's  commercial  emporium. 

Canton,  partly  enclosed  by  walls,  is  six  miles  in  circumfer- 
ence, with  a  partition  wall  dividing  the  city  into  the  old  and 
the  new,  two  tall  pagodas  being  conspicuous.  Formerly  this 
was  the  only  seaf  in  China  of  foreign  trade,  which  was  re- 
stricted to  wealthy  merchants  of  famed  integrity,  through 
whose  hands  all  cargoes  passed,  and  who  were  responsible  to 
the  government  for  customs  dues.  Canton  spreads  a  million 
and  a  half  of  people  for  four  miles  along  the  bank  of  Pearl 
river,  with  100,000  living  in  boats.  Lofty  towers  are  inter- 
spersed among  the  other  structures  for  the  use  of  pawnbrokers. 
Neither  horses  nor  vehicles  are  known,  as  there  is  not  a  street 
within  the  walls  more  than  eight  feet  wide.  Even  the  Japanese 
jinrikisha,  or  the  Mexican  burro,  would  be  something  of  an 
aid  in  a  place  where  freight  and  transportation  are  restricted 
to  the  shoulders  of  men.  The  house  boat  is  an  institution,  a 
family  of  four  occupying  a  craft  twenty  feet  long  and  five  feet 
wide,  a  small  part  aft  alone  being  covered,  while  the  cooking 
is  done  in  the  bow.  The  opium  smoker  here  defends  the  divine 
drug,  asserting  that  it  lengthens,  not  shortens,  life,  and  is  not 
half  so  injurious  to  health  and  morals  as  the  rum  and  tobacco 
of  the  European  barbarian.  The  opium  from  India  is  the 
finer  poison,  and  is  patronized  by  the  wealthy;  the  poor  China- 
man's opium  must  be  that  which  is  raised  in  China. 

The  port  of  Ningpo  presents  a  lively  scene  when  business 
is  good.  At  anchor  are  an  endless  number  and  variety  of 
vessels  presenting  a  forest  of  masts  and  rigging, — junks  with 
4 


88  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

armed  schooners  ready  to  escort  and  protect  them  from 
pirates,  for  a  consideration;  lorchas  flying  Portuguese  colors; 
foreign  brigs;  and  above,  lying  lazily  before  the  town  of  Chin- 
hai,  clusters  of  the  painted  junks  of  Ningpo.  But  most  strik- 
ingly beautiful  of  all  is  the  opium  clipper,  trim  as  a  yacht, 
with  a  fast  sailing  air;  black  smooth  hull  and  taut  black 
rigging;  masts  with  a  rake  aft  and  spars  well  cleaned  and 
varnished;  brass  work  well  polished,  yards  squared  and  sails 
neatly  furled,  and  on  the  white  deck  six  polished  brass  guns 
protruding  their  muzzles  through  ports  with  red  sills. 

Among  Ningpo  wares,  always  for  sale  in  the  river  and  on 
its  banks,  are  oranges  limes  and  dates,  tea  sugar  yams  and  flour, 
silk  and  cotton  goods,  carved  picture-frames,  vases  idols 
trinket-boxes  and  pagodas  in  soapstone;  woven  pictures,  paper 
towelling,  and  carved  bamboo;  furs,  joss-shells,  and  a  hundred 
other  things. 

The  Yellow  and  China  seas  are  maritime  cemeteries,  with 
their  periodic  spasms  under  pressure  of  wind  and  water  cur- 
rents, many  a  ship  and  gallant  crew  having  been  there  en- 
gulfed. Here  the  crews  of  steamships  are  mostly  Japanese, 
who  make  excellent  sailors.  After  a  typhoon  which  perhaps 
has  shivered  the  hull  and  torn  the  sails  into  shreds,  comes 
a  sunset  so  sweet  and  smiling  as  to  give  a  flat  denial  from 
nature  as  to  meaning  any  harm.  Practically,  so  far  as  foreign 
commerce  is  concerned,  China  is  to  the  world  little  better 
than  a  savage  wilderness,  and  worse  indeed  in  some  respects, 
as  there  is  so  much  for  the  inhabitants  to  unlearn. 

The  government  though  despotic  is  patriarchal,  the  emperor 
being  the  political  father  of  his  many  millions  of  people,  but 
with  a  lofty  indifference  to  their  welfare.  The  late  emperor 
was  ninth  of  the  Tartar  dynasty,  whose  first  emperor  was 
Sun-ti,  of  Manchuria.  The  Tartar  dynasty  succeeded  the 
Ming  dynasty  in  1644.  To  Sin-ti  the  Chinese  owe  their  cue, 
a  political  badge  emblematic  of  fealty  to  the  emperor.  The 
shaved  forehead  is  also  an  imperial  regulation.  Without  the 
cue,  the  man  is  a  rebel  or  a  traitor.  The  emperor,  though  all- 
heavenly  and  sublime,  is  but  the  figure-head  of  the  patriarchy; 
the  empire  is  really  ruled  by  six  imperial  boards,  and  all  the 
higher  provincial  officials  are  appointed  by  them.  First  in 
each  of  the  provinces  is  a  governor,  and  under  him  head  offi- 
cials, one  over  each  of  the  districts  into  which  the  province 


THE  PAR  EAST  89 

is  divided.  All  of  these  rulers  and  sub-rulers  have  judicial 
as  well  as  executive  powers.  The  salary  of  the  office-holder 
is  small,  and  as  each  holds  office  subject  to  the  will  of  the 
one  above  him,  bribery  and  corruption  rule  all. 

Patriotism  is  a  superstition  in  China,  just  as  government 
is  religion,  and  religion  demonism.  One  might  think  that 
strong  indeed  must  be  the  influence  that  draws  them  to  their 
native  land,  after  a  lifetime  perhaps  of  money-getting  among 
hated  strangers, — so  strong  that  if  not  alive,  then  dead  they 
must  return.  But  after  all  this  is  not  so  much  love  of  country 
as  fear  of  the  future,  fear  lest  the  soul  finds  no  happiness 
unless  the  body  rests  under  the  celestial  arc  of  the  flowery  land. 

The  isolation  policy  of  China  and  Japan  was  not  of  ancient 
but  of  modern  origin.  There  was  a  time  when  these  nations 
were  pleased  by  a  visit  from  foreigners,  and  a  knock  for  ad- 
mission at  their  door.  It  was  only  when  Europeans  had  found 
their  way  round  the  cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  came  in  better 
ships  and  with  heavier  artillery  than  any  possessed  by  the  Asi- 
atics, and  the  Chinese  rulers  saw  the  strangers  capturing  and 
appropriating  the  islands  of  the  great  Mogul,  and  parts  of 
the  mainland,  that  they  took  fear  and  closed  their  ports, — 
all  but  Canton,  which  thereupon  became  the  only  gate  of  in- 
gress and  egress  in  the  whole  empire.  Japan  at  this  time 
admitted  the  Dutch  only,  and  the  Portuguese  were  permitted 
to  trade  at  Marcao  and  Canton,  but  as  a  rule  China  feared  and 
suspected  all  foreign  nations. 

The  Taiping  rebellion  was  one  of  the  few  long  internal  wars, 
lasting  as  it  did  from  1850  to  1861,  and  resulting  very  nearly 
in  the  overthrow  of  the  government.  Upon  the  termination 
of  this  war,  made  to  drive  the  Tartars  from  the  throne  and 
reinstate  the  Chinese  in  China,  there  were  in  authority  men 
as  wise  as  those  who  built  the  great  wall;  men  so  wise  that  they 
concluded  that  the  surest  way  to  prevent  further  rebellions  was 
to  decapitate  all  the  people  in  China.  They  began  at  Canton, 
and  cut  off  the  heads  of  80,000  in  that  one  city  alone.  Why 
they  stopped  just  at  that  point,  and  have  never  since  continued, 
history  does  not  tell  us.  Perhaps  it  was  because  Tung  Chi  fell 
ill;  at  all  events  in  1875  he  died  and  went  to  meet  that  80,000, 
and  many  a  million  more  whom  his  wars  and  beheadings  had 
sent  hence  before  their  time. 

If  the  Chinese  government  lacks  centralization,  and  the 


90  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

people  are  wanting  in  patriotism,  their  gods  are  in  China,  their 
lares  and  penates  in  the  form  of  a  mortgaged  wife  with  an  un- 
sold son  are  there,  and  thither  wanderers  must  return,  alive 
or  dead.  Every  where  the  fellow  goes  he  makes  and  saves 
money  to  take  home  with  him;  neither  does  he  travel  without 
his  many  bags  and  boxes,  in  which  may  be  found  his  kitchen 
and  drawing-room,  utensils  and  raiment,  with  food  and  smok- 
ing supplies.  His  steamer  fare  from  Singapore  to  Hongkong 
is  $20,  John  finding  his  own  provisions.  John  at  sea  is  a 
study.  When  the  sea  is  calm,  John  is  calm,  and  plays  cards 
or  dominoes  for  copper  cash;  when  the  sea  is  rough,  John's 
face  is  clouded,  and  he  scatters  bits  of  paper  to  the  demons 
of  the  deep.  When  John  dies  on  ship  board,  the  body  is  not 
given  to  the  fishes,  but  is  embalmed  by  the  ship's  doctor,  and 
carried  to  China,  for  so  it  is  written  in  the  bond. 

With  a  population  of  four  hundred  millions,  China's  army 
of  a  million  men  could  easily  be  increased  to  five  or  ten  mill- 
ions, which  with  their  frugal  habits  could  be  easily  sustained 
permanently.  But  a  large  army  is  worse  than  useless  without 
competent  leaders.  With  a  concentration  of  resources,  which 
nould  be  accomplished  by  a  man  of  genius,  China  could  become 
one  of  the  world's  leading  powers. 

If  China  will  arouse  herself  from  her  ages  of  lethargy,  as 
Japan  has  done,  she  may  yet  save  herself  from  the  inexorable 
clutches  of  a  superior  civilization;  otherwise  she  is  doomed. 
Were  the  Chinese  worse  than  they  are,  less  able,  skilful,  and 
industrious,  there  might  be  more  hope  for  them.  The  little 
they  know  and  can  do  engenders  such  insufferable  egotism 
that  they  will  not  listen  to  proposals  to  change.  Throughout 
the  long  centuries  during  which  they  have  neither  advanced 
nor  retrograded,  they  have  come  to  regard  their  nationality 
not  only  older  than  and  superior  to  any  other,  but  more  en- 
during, so  that  change  appears  akin  to  suicide. 

The  one  great  moral  obliquity  of  the  Chinese  people  is  their 
lack  of  respect,  which  enters  into  all  their  ideas  and  idiosyn- 
crasies, into  their  ethics  and  actions.  They  have  no  respect 
for  their  gods  or  for  themselves,  for  the  attributes  of  the  one 
or  the  composition  of  the  other.  Their  religion  is  fear;  and 
the  subjects  of  fear,  that  is  themselves,  they  hold  in  contempt. 
While  attached  to  their  country,  as  a  cat  to  its  garret,  they 
have  little  patriotism,  and  scarcely  know  what  love  is,  love 


THE  FAR  EAST  91 

of  country  or  love  of  family  in  the  higher  and  holier  sense. 
Their  word  in  business  or  diplomacy  is  of  little  value;  fear 
is  the  dominating  element  of  all  intercourse,  and  this  once 
removed  leaves  a  political  or  social  vacuum.  They  have  no 
such  word  as  patriotism  in  their  vocabulary.  Their  nearest 
approach  to  the  sentiment  is  when  they  boast  of  their  own 
country  and  vilify  every  other.  Officers  of  the  government 
commend  loyalty,  that  being  part  of  their  occupation;  in  prac- 
tice they  are  quite  ready  to  sell  their  sovereign  or  any  of  his 
affairs.  The  Chinese  are  essentially  gregarious;  they  prefer, 
town  to  country,  and  gather  themselves  into  communities,  even 
in  the  wilderness,  partly  for  safety  and  partly  for  sociability. 
Caste  is  pronounced;  the  farmer  ranks  higher  than  the  mer- 
chant or  mechanic. 

Life  to  the  Chinaman  is  an  unlucky  affair;  religion,  though 
always  present  is  but  a  negative  factor;  to  escape  evil,  to 
frighten  away  or  propitiate  his  many  demons,  is  his  chief 
concern,  rather  than  the  hunting  of  happiness.  The  Chinese 
are  not  the  first  or  only  people  to  regard  their  old  age  with 
veneration,  or  change  with  contempt..  Is  it  any  more  absurd 
for  these  Asiatics  to  look  down  from  their  forty  centuries 
of  history  on  other  nations  who  cannot  boast  of  more  than 
ten  centuries,  than  for  old  families  every  where  to  regard  them- 
selves as  better  than  others  by  virtue  of  age  alone,  howsoever 
it  may  be  attended  by  inactivity  or  stupidity? 

None  are  so  arrogant  as  the  ignorant.  China  is  proud  of 
her  chains.  Progress  is  little  more  than  movement  in  a  circle. 
Education  means  some  knowledge  of  jurisprudence,  the  clas- 
sics, and  the  history  of  China.  To  know  Confucius  is  to  know 
all;  what  he  said  is  all-sufficient,  what  he  did  not  say  is  not 
worth  saying. 

Among  prominent  mandarins  of  the  present  epoch  may  be 
mentioned  Prince  Kung,  younger  brother  of  the  emperor  Hien- 
fung,  and  chief  minister  of  the  empire;  Li  Hung  Chang,  states- 
man, superintendent  of  trade,  and  sometime  viceroy  of  Chihli 
and  guardian  of  the  throne,  and  who  though  already  rich  dis- 
dains not  with  the  accumulations  of  honors  the  acquisition  of 
further  wealth;  the  Chinese  diplomat,  Tseng;  and  the  Manchu 
statesman  Wensiang,  once  virtually  premier  of  the  empire, 
though  nominally  there  is  no  such  office. 

Li  Hung  Chang,  the  Bismarck  of  China,  was  of  plebeian 


92  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

origin,  and  rose  from  clerk  in  the  civil  service.  As  he  forced 
his  way  upward  through  fierce  opposition,  he  dragged  China 
after  him,  compelling  her  to  measures  which  might  place  her 
among  progressive  nations.  Born  in  1822,  his  erudition  and 
ability  secured  him  a  small  office  at  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
and  fourteen  years  later  he  had  reached  the  position  of  taotai, 
or  prefect,  of  the  district  of  Kiangsu,  then  in  revolt.  It  was 
in  quelling  this  rebellion  that  he  first  attained  prominence, 
and  within  a  year  afterward  was  appointed  acting  general  of 
the  forces  about  Shanghai  and  Sung  Kiang.  He  soon  dis- 
played a  masterful  knowledge  of  European  affairs,  and  ad- 
vanced so  far  in  wisdom  as  to  acknowledge  the  backwardness 
of  China  and  the  inferiority  of  her  arms.  He  enlisted  the 
services  of  English  and  French  military  men,  and  drilled  his 
army  in  the  tactics  of  modern  warfare,  by  which  means  he  was 
enabled  to  put  down  the  Taiping  rebellion,  and  for  which 
service  he  was  made  general  of  all  the  Chinese  forces,  governor 
of  Kiangsu,  imperial  commissioner  for  foreign  trade,  and  su- 
preme adviser  to  the  throne.  In  1870  he  was  viceroy,  and  later 
became  absolute  dictator,  of  the  Chinese  empire.  Never  before 
had  a  Chinese  subject  risen  to  such  power.  Many  times  his 
life  or  liberty  was  in  danger  from  treachery,  and  conspiracy, 
but  for  the  most  part  he  managed  to  escape  the  snares  of  his 
enemies.  ,  '• 

A  late  incident  aptly  illustrates  the  character  of  this  greatest 
of  Chinamen.  Li  Hung  Chang  in  the  spring  of  1899  was  sent 
by  the  empress,  as  imperial  high  commissioner  of  river  con- 
servancy, to  the  relief  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  flooded  districts 
of  Yellow  river.  Arrived  at  Shangtung,  Li  was  welcomed  and 
royally  entertained  by  the  governor,  Chang  Jumei,  who  in- 
dulged in  every  extravagance,  and  launched  into  the  profuse 
expenditure  of  $1,000  a  day  on  his  illustrious  guest.  The 
empress  was  shocked,  on  hearing  of  it,  that  in  the  face  of  such 
destitution  the  man  whom  she  had  sent  to  relieve  the  suffering 
creatures  should  waste  time  and  money  in  such  senseless  folly. 

There  is  need  of  improvement  in  China,  as  elsewhere  round 
the  Pacific,  and  China  is  slowly  improving.  Great  statesmen, 
like  the  marquis  Tseng  and  Li  Hung  Chang,  are  coming  for- 
ward, men  who  know  the  world  and  what  is  going  on  in  it, 
and  who  know  that  their  country,  with  all  her  boundless  re- 
sources, and  shrewd,  hard-working  people,  cannot  long  remain 


THE   FAR   EAST  93 

hidden  or  live  so  apart  from  their  fellow-men  in  other  parts 
of  the  world.  The  fleet  of  the  China  Merchant  company  was 
organized  under  the  auspices  of  Li  Hung  Chang  by  Tang  King 
Sing,  who  received  his  business  training  in  the  house  of  Jardine 
and  Matheson. 

All  Japanese  cities  are  much  alike,  and  the  shops  every 
where  have  for  sale  about  the  same  goods,  namely,  tea,  coffee, 
rice,  vegetables,  and  fruit.  Specialty  stores  have  fancy  goods 
and  jewelry.  At  Yokohama  the  business  quarter  is  called  the 
harbor,  and  the  residence  quarter  the  bluff.  Passengers  arriv- 
ing by  steamer  land  in  boats,  and  may  if  they  choose  go  to 
a  good  American  hotel,  where  the  chambermaids  are  little  male 
Japs,  as  in  Mexico  they  are  mozos.  There  is  a  bright  business 
aspect  to  shops,  streets,  and  inhabitants,  the  merchandise  being 
clean  and  well  kept,  and  the  men  active  and  intelligent.  There 
is  quite  a  business  in  the  manufacture  of  the  antique,  which 
is  closely  imitated.  The  native  tradesmen  are  tricky,  and  less 
reliable  than  the  Chinese.  It  is  said  if  you  wish  to  sell  a  horse 
in  Japan  you  must  begin  by  trying  to  buy  a  cow. 

All  along  the  Asiatic  coast  from  Japan  to  Java,  the  chief 
cities,  whether  ancient  and  erected  by  the  natives,  or  modern 
and  so  arranged  by  the  Americans  and  Europeans  for  whom 
ports  were  opened,  are  divided  into  two  parts,  one  of  which 
is  occupied  by  the  government  and  aristocracy,  and  the  other 
by  merchants,  manufacturers,  and  the  common  people.  We 
see  it  in  Yokohama,  which  was  newly  constructed  on  an  island 
set  apart  to  foreign  trade  in  the  treaty  in  1854  with  the  United 
States;  at  Manila,  built  by  the  Spaniards  in  the  sixteenth 
century;  at  Peking,  built  by  the  Chinese  as  many  thousand 
years  ago  as  you  like,  and  at  every  other  considerable  city 
in  eastern  Asia.  In  some  of  the  more  important  cities  of 
China  there  is  set  apart  the  Manchu  quarter  for  garrison  pur- 
poses for  the  ruling  race,  which  tend  to  keep  in  mind,  if 
nothing  more,  that  the  throne  will  be  held  if  necessary  as  it 
was  won  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago. 

The  progress  of  the  Japanese  people  is  genuine  and  perma- 
nent. Though  rapid,  it  has  been  well-considered  and  is  con- 
servative. Glad  at  first  to  learn  from  others,  they  soon  fell 
back  upon  their  own  resources.  There  are  some  things  left, 
however,  for  Japan  yet  to  learn,  and  with  closer  commercial 
relations  once  established  between  the  opposite  shores  of  Amer- 


94  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

ica  and  Asia,  much  may  be  found  for  the  people  of  both  sides 
to  do  beneficial  to  each  other. 

History  here  is  direct  and  simple;  whether  true  or  not  makes 
little  difference.  Since  whenever  the  world  was  made  the 
gods  ruled  Japan,  until  2,500  ye^rs  ago  arose  a  wise  descendant 
of  the  deities,  Jinmu  Tenno,  whose  line  of  123  mikados  runs 
continuous  from  that  day  to  this.  Thus  is  given  in  these  few 
words  a  model  history  of  a  great  nation. 

Eeligion  is  just  as  easy.  It  begins  with  one  god,  the  number 
increasing  until  there  are  eight  millions  of  gods.  That  is  all,— 
that  is  to  say  all  worth  knowing;  and  truly  there  are  gods 
enough  for  almost  any  religion,  a  god  for  every  third  or  fourth 
inhabitant  of  the  country.  Yet,  like  men,  some  gods  are 
greater  than  others.  Buddha  was  great;  likewise  Confucius, 
though  he  was  a  Chinaman.  It  was  deemed  wise  at  first  to 
have  a  god  for  every  man,  but  gods  made  men  faster  than  men 
made  gods,  and  soon  there  were  not  gods  enough  to  go  round. 

The  generations  of  gods  and  men  are  many.  The  land  is 
the  land  of  the  gods;  seven  generations  of  heavenly  deities 
are  succeeded  by  seven  generations  of  earthly  deities,  and  these 
by  the  123  mikados,  or  mortal  sovereigns.  The  line  of  em- 
perors dates  from  660  B  C,  the  beginning  of  the  Japanese  era, 
which  makes  our  year  1900  the  Japanese  year  .2560,  prior  to 
which  time  the  Japanese  admit  their  ancestors  to  have  been 
savages.  But  these  Japanese  savages,  coming  from  somewhere, 
they  themselves  scarcely  know  where,  from  China  it  may  be, 
or  America,  or  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  of  midocean,  whence- 
soever  they  came  they  found  in  their  3,000  islands  a  more  sav- 
age people  than  themselves,  and  so  drove  them  out,  and  de- 
spoiled them,  and  took  possession,  after  the  manner  of  men 
from  the  beginning. 

There  was  a  Mongol  invasion  of  Japan  in  1281,  and  in  1542 
Portuguese  traders  appeared;  and  after  them  the  Spaniards, 
and  then  the  Dutch,  the  last  monopolizing  trade  from  1610 
for  a  long  period.  Then  came  the  English,  and  relations  were 
established  with  the  United  States  after  the  Perry  expedition 
in  1854.  The  dark  age  of  Japan  came  to  a  close  with  the  revo- 
lution of  1868,  which  crushed  the  feuds  of  the  nobles  and 
ended  the  Tokugawa  dynasty.  The  year  following  the  mikado 
removed  his  court  from  Kioto  to  Yedo,  the  name  of  the  latter 
being  changed  to  Tokio,  that  is  to  say  the  eastern  capital. 


THE  FAR  EAST  95 

Previous  to  the  expedition  of  Commodore  Perry,  exclusive- 
ness  reigned  in  Japan  to  a  greater  degree  than  when  Pinto, 
the  Portuguese  discoverer,  first  set  foot  on  that  shore  300  years 
before.  When  the  Dutch  in  1637  exposed  a  Portuguese  con- 
spiracy to  overthrow  the  government,  the  latter  had  been  driven 
out  and  the  Hollanders  had  taken  their  place.  Catherine  of 
Russia  in  1792  sent  back  some  Japanese  sailors,  wrecked  on  the 
Aleutian  islands;  their  country  refused  to  receive  them,  as 
was  the  case  when  the  Americans  attempted  to  return  the  crew 
of  a  Japanese  junk  wrecked  near  the  inouth  of  the  Columbia 
river  in  1831,  the  ship  conveying  them  was  driven  away  by 
shotted  guns.  Commodore  Biddle  was  sent  by  the  United 
States  government  in  1846  to  establish  commercial  relations, 
and  he  was  informed,  "  We  trade  only  with  the  Dutch."  But 
Commodore  Perry,  by  informing  himself  beforehand  of  the 
character  and  customs  of  the  Japanese,  and  by  assuming  an 
imposing  state  and  firm  conduct  in  all  his  intercourse^  suc- 
ceeded in  winning  respect  and  confidence  and  establishing  com- 
mercial relations.  Anchoring  his  squadron  in  the  harbor  of 
Napha,  he  refused  to  receive  on  board  the  first  who  came,  who 
it  appeared  was  not  the  chief  dignitary  of  the  island.  The 
next  day  four  persons  came  with  presents  of  pigs,  fowls,  a 
bullock,  a  white  goat,  vegetables  and  eggs;  they  were  in  like 
manner  turned  away.  The  third  visit  was  made  by  the  regent 
of  the  kingdom  of  Lew  Chew,  who  informed  the  Americans 
that  the  boy  prince  and  queen  dowager  were  ill.  This  em- 
bassy was  received  in  state,  and  the  visit  returned;  the  Ameri- 
cans though  royally  entertained  being  jealously  watched  in  all 
their  movements,  the  natives  meanwhile  manifesting  no  sur- 
prise at  any  thing  they  saw. 

In  its  earlier  stages,  Japanese  navigation  was  confined  to  its 
own  coasts.  Mendez  Pinto,  in  1512,  surprised  the  people  here 
with  his  long  firelocks;  Perry  surprised  them  with  the  minia- 
tui*e  railway  and  telegraph  lines  he  set  up;  and  when  the  bar- 
riers of  exclusiveness  were  broken  down  they  were  ready  to 
learn  from  all  the  world,  and  buy  and  sell  with  any  and  every 
one.  An  arsenal  was  built  at  Yokosuka,  and  lighthouses  were 
set  up  along  the  coast. 

The  foreign  trade  of  Japan  has  been  varied  and  fluctuating. 
In  early  times  gold  silver  and  copper  were  the  principal  ex- 
ports; later,  silk  tea  and  rice  became  prominent.  The  trade 


96  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

between  China  and  Japan  has  of  course  been  continuous  from 
remote  ages,  increasing  from  century  to  century  until  in  1684, 
according  to  Thunberg,  200  Chinese  vessels,  with  fifty  men 
each,  came  every  year  to  the  coasts  of  Japan,  bringing  silks, 
sugar,  turpentine,  incense,  camphor,  ginseng,  and  agates, 
which  were  exchanged  for  copper  and  lacquer  work.  The 
Portuguese  brought  silks  from  Macao,  which  were  sold  for 
silver  and  gold. 

Upon  the  authority  of  A.  de  Morga,  we  find  the  Spanish- 
Asiatic  commerce  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  consist  largely 
of  the  trade  of  Manila  with  Macao  and  Japan.  Ships  were 
carried  by  the  northerly  winds  from  Nagasaki  to  the  Philippine 
isles  in  March,  bringing  flour  salt  meat  and  tunny-fish,  fresh 
pears,  iron  tools  and  weapons,  such  as  fine  swords;  also  cages, 
patterned  silks,  jewel-cases,  screens,  artistically  lacquered  ar- 
ticles in  rare  woods,  some  silver,  and  sometimes  horses.  The 
return  cargo  consisted  of  Chinese  raw  silks,  hartshorn  shav- 
ings, Spanish  wine,  honey,  wax,  brazil-wood  for  dyeing,  Thi- 
betian  cats,  large  tea  jars,  clothing,  and  glass.  These  vessels 
sailed  from  Manila  for  Nagasaki  to  catch  the  southern  mon- 
soon winds  in  June  or  July.  Something  of  a  damper  was 
thrown  on  this  profitable  intercourse  in  1595  by  Taiko-sama, 
the  lord  of  all  Japan,  who  in  the  arrogance  of  ignorance  de- 
manded from  the  governor  of  Manila  recognition  of  his  su- 
periority, with  tribute. 

Nevertheless  commercial  relations  continued  unbroken  be- 
tween the  Philippines  and  Japan  until  1630,  Japanese  enter- 
prise meanwhile  extending  in  other  directions,  along  the  coasts 
of  Korea  and  China,  as  well  as  to  more  distant  isles  and  farther 
India.  Japanese  seamen  took  service  in  foreign  ships,  made 
distant  voyages  and  learned  more  of  the  art  of  navigation,  and 
finally  fitted  out  their  own  junks  for  foreign  trade,  or  for 
preying  as  pirates  on  the  trade  of  others. 

In  a  memoir  by  E.  Satow  on  the  trade  of  the  Asiatic  isles 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  mention  is  made  of  Japanese  col- 
onies in  Ayuthia,  then  the  capital  of  Siam,  and  at  Patani  the 
commercial  metropolis,  where  the  merchandise  of  Asia  found 
a  market,  and  European  goods  were  found  for  sale. 

Since  the  opening  of  Japan  to  the  commerce  of  the  world, 
which  followed  the  Perry  expedition,  and  particularly  the 
downfall  of  the  shogunate  and  the  restoration  of  the  mikado 


THE  FAR  EAST  97 

in  1868,  free  ports  were  established  and  treaties  made  with 
the  leading  powers  of  America  and  Europe.  Kanagawa,  now 
Yokohama,  Nagasaki,  and  Hakodate  were  made  free  ports  in 
1859,  Niigata  in  1860,  and  Kobe  and  Osaka  in  1863.  In  each 
of  these  cities  ground  was  assigned  on  which  foreigners  might 
build  and  transact  business  by  paying  a  regulation  tax,  and 
a  tariff  of  five  per  cent  on  imported  and  exported  goods. 

Yokohama,  then  a  fishing  village,  is  now  a  large  and  beauti- 
ful city,  with  a  port  having  good  anchorage,  and  of  convenient 
distance  alike  from  the  capital,  and  from  the  principal  tea 
and  silk  districts.  While  for  over  1,000  years  Kioto  as  the 
capital  was  the  centre  of  national  affairs,  Osaka  was  the  com- 
mercial emporium,  where  were  the  chief  banking-houses  and 
the  largest  dealers  in  silk,  tea,  and  rice.  The  foreign  settle- 
ment of  Kobe  is  like  Yokohama,  a  new  city,  with  a  large  har- 
bor, and  a  good  trade  in  rice  and  tea,  also  in  sumach-tallow 
copper  and  camphor,  importing  petroleum  and  sugar,  cotton 
and  woollen  goods,  and  gold  and  silver  bars  for  coinage  at  the 
mint. 

Nagasaki  has  regular  steamer  service  with  Korea  and  the 
coast  of  China,  shipping  hence,  besides  coal  from  the  adjacent 
mines  of  Takashima,  camphor,  tea,  rice,  sumach-tallow,  and 
dried  marine  animals,  quantities  of  tobacco  going  from  here 
to  Yokohama  and  Kobe.  Hakodate,  on  the  island  of  Yezo, 
exports  deer  skins  and  antlers,  sulphur  wood  algae  and  marine 
animals,  importing  a  few  foreign  articles.  Niigata  does  a 
small  business  in  rice,  tea,  and  fish  guano. 

At  all  these  free  ports,  as  well  as  at  the  free  ports  of  China 
and  the  principal  cities  of  the  Asiatic  isles,  are  business  firms 
from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  American  British  and  Ger- 
man. Portuguese  French  Dutch  and  Scandinavian,  Swiss  Span- 
ish Italian  and  Austrian.  In  Japan  and  the  Philippines 
are  hundreds  of  Chinese  business  firms  and  manufacturing 
shops. 

In  the  temples  of  Tokio  the  priests  drive  a  good  trade  writ- 
ing pretty  prayers  on  slips  of  papers  which  the  purchaser 
presses  to  his  forehead  and  'breast,  then  fastens  them  to  the 
temple  wall,  there  to  stand  as  a  perpetual  petition.  We  can 
see  how  this  holy  correspondence  might  assume  large  propor- 
tions when  we  consider  that  there  are  30,000  deities  who  honor 
one  of  these  temples  with  their  idols.  In  keeping  with  this 


98  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

are  the  streetsf ull  of  mountebanks,  acrobats,  and  conjurers 
which  characterize  this  town. 

The  barbarism  from  which  during  the  last  half  century 
Japan  has  emerged  was  no  less  dense  than  her  enlightenment 
has  been  brilliant  and  intelligent.  Never  has  a  nation  made 
such  giant  strides  in  self-education  and  civilization.  Not  so 
very  long  ago  the  coast  people  of  eastern  Asia  killed  all  stran- 
gers thrown  upon  their  shore,  all  shipwrecked  mariners,  or 
those  who  visited  them  in  distress;  for  in  Japan  the  penalty 
was  death  to  hold  intercourse  with  foreigners.  The  mikado 
was  spiritual  emperor,  with  his  court  at  Kioto,  while  the  tem- 
poral authority  was  held  by  the  tycoon  at  Yeddo,  and  the 
affairs  of  the  realm  administered  by  daimios,  each  with  his 
own  armed  retainers.  Revolution  came;  the  mikado  assumed 
the  supremacy  in  all  things  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  his 
people,  and  to-day  there  are  in  this  outpost  of  Asia,  railways 
and  telegraphs,  schools  newspapers  mint  and  dry-dock.  All 
this  was  due  primarily  to  the  influence  and  agency  of  the 
United  States,  the  visit  of  Perry  and  the  treaty  which  followed 
being  the  inauguration  of  the  new  regime. 

Japan  is  not  always  successful  in  her  imitation  of  the  finan- 
cial methods  of  more  experienced  centres.  Many  failures  have 
occurred  among  the  joint  stock  companies,  owing  to  gigantic 
frauds  in  which  the  Asiatics  equal  Americans  and  Europeans 
as  adepts.  The  Hiogo  Soko  Kaisha,  or  Tokio  Warehouse  com- 
pany, according  to  the  officers  of  the  Japanese  liner  Eiojun 
Maru,  issued  fraudulent  storage  receipts  to  the  amount  of 
500,000  yen.  Says  The  Jiji,  a  leading  Japanese  journal :  "  For 
some  years  past  various  joint  stock  companies  have  come  into 
existence  throughout  all  parts  of  Japan.  Indeed,  so  much 
has  this  been  the  case  with  those  undertakings  requiring  a 
considerable  capital,  that  they  are  now  almost  invariably  car- 
ried on  by  the  joint  stock  company  system.  The  coming  into 
fashion  of  such  a  system  is  a  matter  for  congratulation,  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  majority  of  the  directors  and 
auditors  of  these  companies  are  far  from  being  qualified  to 
carry  on  the  duties  appertaining"  to  their  posts.  The  result  is 
that  corruption  is  eating  out  the  very  vitals  of  the  companies 
they  are  supposed  to  control,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to  hear 
that  constant  and  unexpected  losses  are  incurred  by  the  share- 
holders." 


THE  FAR  EAST  <J'J 

Siberia,  or  Asiatic  Russia,  with  7,200,000  square  miles, 
1,200,000  square  miles  of  which  are  habitable,  and  occupied 
by  12,000,000  people,  can  easily  support  and  make  well-to-do 
or  wealthy  twenty  times  that  number.  Quantities  of  tea  are 
drunk  here,  the  favorite  being  caravan  tea,  brought  overland 
from  China  via  Peking  and  Kyachta,  but  often  displaced  by 
vile  black  tea  brought  from  London  over  the  Polish  border. 
This  tea  is  paid  for  in  silver,  woollen  cloths,  and  Yakutsk  and 
Kamchatka  furs. 

The  Kamchatkans  are  a  hardy  race,  eating  besides  their  fat 
and  fish,  berries,  mushrooms,  and  the  bulb  of  the  martagon 
lily,  and  sleeping  in  earth-covered  pits,  descent  into  which  is 
made  by  means  of  a  ladder.  Their  sledges  are  the  pride  of 
arcticdom,  highly  trained  dogs  being  preferred  to  reindeer. 
The  Kamchatka  river,  310  miles  long  and  emptying  into  Be- 
ring sea,  flows  through  the  most  fertile  and  populous  part  of 
the  peninsula.  Japan  has  many  lakes  and  rivers,  Tonegawa, 
the  largest  stream,  however,  being  but  170  miles  long.  On 
this  and  a  few  other  streams,  traversing  large  tracts  of  rice- 
land,  ply  small  steamers  and  flat  bottomed  boats. 

The  Japanese,  formerly  a  quiet,  dolce  far  niente  people,  with 
few  exciting  or  open  air  sports,  have  lately  taken  up  athletics, 
seemingly  so  good  to  Englishmen  and  Americans,  to  whose 
virtues  they  ever  aspire.  Tokio  now  plays  Yokohama,  and 
Sendai  plays  Tokio,  just  as  Harvard  and  Yale  or  as  Cambridge 
and  Oxford  play,  while  Japan  further  aspires  to  challenge 
America  to  matches  of  baseball  and  rowing.  All  of  which 
has  a  marked  influence  on  the  national  character;  we  can 
hardly  yet  imagine  the  pigtails  of  progressive  China  flying 
about  universities  of  learning  in  sports  copied  from  the  Eng- 
lish and  Americans. 

Japan  is  fast  becoming  a  manufacturing  instead  of  an  agri- 
cultural country,  and  in  this  as  in  many  things  she  displays 
wisdom.  The  genius  of  her  people  no  less  than  the  quality 
of  her  soil;  the  increase  of  population  and  the  restricted  limits 
of  her  territory;  all  point  to  commerce  and  manufactures  as 
the  road  to  honor  and  wealth.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  while 
the  people  of  the  United  States  lie  dreaming  of  their  greatness 
that  Japan  will  take  the  foremost  position  in  manufactures 
as  well  as  in  transportation  in  the  Pacific.  Unless,  however, 
the  Japanese  put  more  honesty  into  their  manufactures  than 


100  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

they  do  of  integrity  into  their  commerce,  their  competition 
in  any  line  will  not  long  be  formidable.  While  yielding  su- 
premacy in  those  mechanical  manufactures  which  require  pe- 
culiar patience  and  expertness  of  the  fingers,  and  in  which  they 
show  marked  proficiency,  as  in  the  manipulations  of  tea,  silks, 
and  articles  of  Asiatic  art,  there  is  little  danger  that  any  of 
the  transpacific  nations  will  ever  be  able  to  compete  success- 
fully with  the  United  States  and  England  in  the  more  sub- 
stantial and  staple  commodities. 

The  commercial  morality  of  the  Japanese  is  inferior  even 
to  that  of  the  Chinese,  as  I  have  said.  Successful  enterprise 
has  made  them  self-confident,  leading  them  to  place  too  high 
an  estimate  on  themselves  and  their  abilities,  and  giving  them 
the  impression  that  they  can  successfully  compete  with  any 
nation  at  any  thing.  But  the  Chinese  are  still  their  superiors 
in  many  ways,  to  say  nothing  of  nations  of  the  more  advanced 
civilization.  It  is  difficult  to  hold  a  Japanese  to  his  contract 
with  the  market  against  him.  He  is  eminently  fertile  in  ex- 
cuses to  break  engagements,  and  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
break  his  word  without  any  excuse.  "  You  said  you  would 
do  so  and  so  "  the  victim  to  a  promise  argues.  "  Ah,  yes! 
I  say  so;  I  tell  lie  "  the  grinning  heir  of  heaven  replies. 

Japan's  best  customer  is  China,  whence,  as  well  as  from 
India,  she  draws  much  of  her  raw  material.  But  if  the  time 
ever  comes  when  the  Chinese  wake  from  their  lethargy  and 
avail  themselves  of  their  opportunities,  they  will  surpass  the 
Japanese  in  almost  everything.  Already  the  Chinese  are  in- 
vading Japan  to  some  extent  with  their  arts  and  industries, 
even  Chinese  coal  having  a  tendency  in  that  direction. 

Internal  commerce  is  considerable,  when  the  primitive 
means  of  transportation  is  considered,  which  is  by  men  and 
beasts  of  burden,  no  vehicles  being  in  use.  Among  the  chief 
articles  of  traffic  are  silk  and  cotton  stuffs,  which  they  manu- 
facture, and  porcelain  tea  and  rhubarb,  which  they  import 
from  China,  and  some  manufactured  goods  from  Enssia. 

Khordadbeh,  an  Arab  geographer,  wrote  of  Korea  in  the 
ninth  century.  The  people  are  of  the  pronounced  Mongolian 
type,  with  bronze  skin  and  true  obliquity  of  eye,  though  with 
good  physique  and  intelligent  features.  They  are  quick  witted, 
cunning  and  suspicious,  and  like  all  oriental  people,  together 
with  some  of  the  Latin  race,  are  great  liars. 


THE  FAR  EAST  101 

Under  the  universal  spread  of  intelligence  and  the  general 
advancement  of  learning  China  is  turning  her  attention  ear- 
nestly to  the  cause  of  education,  ..robbing  .up 'her  old  civiliza- 
tion and  embellishing  it  with  modern  thought,  but  with  a  care 
that  in  ethics  and  religion  the.orshodox  ^inese.{>hall  be  pre- 
served. So  in  Korea,  where  Russian  and  Japanese  unite  to 
promulgate  loftier  ideals,  we  find  that  the  cause  of  education 
is  indeed  not  neglected.  Let  us  read  a  few  lines  from  one  of 
their  text  books,  say  the  Confucianist  Scholar's  Handbook  of 
the  Latitudes  and  Longitudes,  which  must  mean  geography; 
at  all  events  it  was  printed  at  Seoul,  in  1896,  at  government 
expense,  under  the  auspices  of  the  learned  and  veracious  Sin 
Ki  Sun,  minister  of  education,  for  teaching  the  youth  of  eastern 
Asia  the  truth  concerning  this  world  and  the  people  thereof. 

"  How  grand  and  glorious  is  the  empire  of  China,  the  middle 
kingdom!  She  is  the  largest  and  richest  in  the  world.  The 
grandest  men  in  the  world  have  all  come  from  the  middle  em- 
pire. 

"  Europe  is  too  far  away  from  the  centre  of  civilization, 
which  is  the  middle  kingdom;  hence  Russians,  Turks,  English, 
French,  Germans,  and  Belgians  look  more  like  little  beasts  than 
men,  and  their  language  sounds  like  the  chirping  of  fowls. 

"  According  to  the  views  of  recent  generations,  what  west- 
erners call  the  Christian  religion  is  vulgar,  shallow,  and  erro- 
neous, and  is  an  instance  of  barbarian  customs,  which  are  not 
worthy  of  serious  discussion. 

"  They  worship  the  heavenly  spirits,  but  do  not  sacrifice 
to  parents;  they  insult  heaven  in  every  way,  and  overturn  the 
social  relations.  This  is  truly  a  type  of  barbarian  vileness, 
and  is  not  worthy  of  treatment  in  our  review  of  foreign  cus- 
toms, especially  as  at  this  time  the  religion  is  somewhat  on 
the  wane. 

"  Europeans  have  planted  their  spawn  in  every  country  of 
the  globe  except  China.  All  of  them  honor  this  religion;  but 
we  are  surprised  to  find  that  the  Chinese  scholars  and  people 
have  not  escaped  contamination  by  it. 

"  Of  late  the  so-called  Christianity  has  been  trying  to  con- 
taminate the  world  with  its  barbarous  teachings.  It  deceives 
the  masses  by  its  stories  of  heaven  and  hell;  it  interferes  with 
the  rights  of  ancestral  worship,  and  interdicts  the  custom  of 
bowing  before  the  gods  of  heaven  and  earth.  These  are 


102  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

the  ravings  of  a  disordered  intellect,  and  are  not  worth  dis- 
cussing." 

Japan  is  the 'natural  aftd  hereditary  enemy  of  China,  their 
lands  being  adjacent  and  their  interests  often  conflicting,  while 
America  aivl'  Kngjand  axe*  lifer  nafcurai  allies,  as  there  are  no 
ancient  wrongs,  or '  present  jealousies,  or  fear  of  future  en- 
croachments that  are  likely  to  arise.  Naturally,  these  two 
great  Asiatic  nations  have  been  always  jealous  and  often  at 
war.  The  conquest  of  Japan  was  seriously  considered  by  the 
wall-builder,  Chin,  and  Kublai  Khan  despatched  for  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  islanders  an  armada  with  100,000  men,  of 
whom  none  ever  returned.  After  this  the  Japanese  ravaged 
the  mainland  coast  so  fiercely  that  China  drew  back  and  closed 
her  doors,  shutting  out  with  the  Japanese  all  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Japan  was  just  as  exclusive  until  the  coming  of  Com- 
modore Perry  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  when  she  was 
brought  to  consider  a  more  enlightened  and  genial  policy,  and 
better  for  China  had  she  profited  by  her  example,  and  saved 
the  empire  perhaps  from  dissolution.  Instead  of  that,  China's 
hatred  increases  as  Japan  progresses.  Japan  regards  China 
as  insensate  and  blind;  China  despises  Japan  as  recreant  to 
their  common  traditions. 

In  war,  China  is  the  whale  and  Japan  the  harpooner.  First 
in  this  latter-day  epoch  Liuchiu,  one  of  China's  dependencies, 
was  made  to  divide  her  allegiance.  Then  a  move  was  made 
on  Formosa,  the  cause  alleged  being  the  killing  of  Liuchiuan 
fishermen  on  her  eastern  coast;  the  real  object  of  course  was 
spoliation.  After  that,  in  1878,  came  difficulties  in  Korea, 
the  destruction  of  the  Japanese  consulate  at  Seoul  resulting 
and  being  followed  by  a  diplomatic  victory  for  Japan  which 
gave  her  a  political  foothold  on  the  peninsula.  In  the  rebellion 
of  1894  the  Korean  king  appealed  to  China  for  aid;  Japan 
also  sent  soldiers  to  Seoul,  and  finally  brought  on  the  war  with 
China  which  yielded  the  victor  no  small  profit.  It  is  easily 
seen  how  completely  the  Russians  are  masters  of  the  situation, 
neither  China  nor  Japan  being  able  to  make  a  move  toward 
hostilities  in  any  direction  without  their  sanction.  If  Japan 
conducts  herself  to  Russia's  satisfaction,  she  may  be  allowed 
in  time  to  acquire  Borneo,  first  purchasing  the  interests  of 
the  North  Borneo  company.  Terms  might  perhaps  be  made 
also  with  Rajah  Brooke  and  the  sultan  of  Brunei.  Other  isl- 


THE  FAR  EAST  103 

ands  Japan  may  be  allowed  to  gain,  but  nothing  on  the  main- 
land, as  may  be  seen  by  her  enforced  evacuation  of  Liaotong. 

As  in  all  recent  conflicts  between  civilized  nations,  the  war 
between  China  and  Japan  was  short,  lasting  eight  months  from 
July  25,  1894,  the  latter  soon  proving  her  superiority  on  both 
land  and  sea.  It  was  in  the  superior  energy  and  ability  on 
the  part  of  the  Japanese  which  enabled  them  to  win  in  this 
war  against  greater  numbers.  In  the  naval  battle  off  the  Yalu 
river  the  Chinese  fleet  was  badly  defeated;  four  of  their  war- 
ships were  sunk,  and  though  the  Japanese  lost  none  of  their 
vessels,  one  of  them  was  disabled  and  three  badly  damaged, 
while  in  all  of  them  was  considerable  loss  of  life. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  Japan's  statesmen  was  Count  Inouye, 
who  in  a  measure  created  the  new  Japan,  and  ruled  Korea 
and  her  king  during  the  transition  days  following  the  war. 
In  the  treaty  of  peace  signed  at  Shimonoseki  in  May,  1895, 
besides  securing  independence  to  Korea,  Japan  received  a  large 
indemnity  and  the  island  of  Formosa,  thus  becoming  a  formi- 
dable power  in  the  Far  East.  It  was  the  desire  of  Count  Inouye 
and  the  emperor  of  Japan,  while  giving  Korea  independence 
from  China  to  strengthen  the  royal  house  of  Korea,  and  re- 
organize Korean  affairs  on  a  more  honest  and  economical  basis. 

By  the  treaty  between  Russia  and  Japan  made  at  Seoul  in 
1896,  the  king  of  Korea  must  ever  have  moderate  men  as 
ministers,  and  show  clemency  to  his  subjects.  Japanese  guards 
may  be  placed  to  protect  the  telegraph  line  between  Fusan 
and  Seoul,  fifty  men  at  Fusan,  fifty  men  at  Kaheung,  and  ten 
men  each  at  ten  intermediate  posts  between  Fusan  and  Seoul. 
For  the  protection  of  Japanese  interests  at  Seoul  and  the  open 
ports  against  possible  Korean  attacks,  companies  of  troops  of 
200  men  each,  might  be  stationed  one  at  Seoul,  one  at  Fusan, 
and  one  at  Wonsan,  and  the  Russians  might  have  an  equal 
number  of  troops  at  the  Russian  legation  and  consulates.  The 
Korean  government  must  retrench  expenditures,  and  so  far 
as  possible  make  revenues  cover  expenses.  In  case  of  a  loan 
becoming  necessary,  the  consent  of  both  Japan  and  Russia 
must  be  obtained. 

One  thing  there  was  which  came  about  in  the  evolution  of 
Korean  progress  which  touched  the  hearts  of  the  people  more 
sorely  than  the  loss  of  allegiance  to  China  and  the  intermed- 
dling of  a  detested  neighbor,  or  the  assassination  of  their  queen, 


104:  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

or  the  imposition  of  independence;  this  was  the  royal  edict 
of  December  30th,  1895,  enforcing  the  cropping  of  the  hair. 
The  top-knot  of  the  Korean  was  as  the  queue  of  the  Chinaman; 
it  signified  respectability,  and  more;  it  was  a  badge  of  loyalty 
to  one's  self  and  to  the  nation;  it  was  a  mark  at  once  of  in- 
tegrity, patriotism,  and  religion.  As  the  Korean  is  more  sen- 
sitive than  the  Chinaman,  so  the  loss  of  the  hair,  which  had 
been  for  a  thousand  years  sacred  to  him  from  its  antiquity 
and  associations,  was  indeed  a  calamity.  But  off  it  must  come, 
for  Count  Inouye  had  so  willed,  and  the  king  had  so  ordered. 
With  all  the  rest  the  Korean  top-knot  was  an  emblem  of 
manhood;  it  was  not  given  to  the  boy,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Chinaman's  queue,  but  was  assumed  usually  with  marriage, 
when  the  child  became  legally  and  socially  a  man,  was  clothed 
for  the  first  time  in  the  raiment  of  the  man,  and  took  a  new 
name  by  which  he  was  ever  afterward  known;  it  came  at  this 
turning-point  of  life,  and  showed  to  all  the  world  that  he  was 
now  indeed  a  Korean,  pride  of  antiquity  uniting  with  pride 
of  person,  of  family,  of  country,  to  invest  this  sacred  emblem 
with  high  distinction.  Therefore  there  was  mourning  in  Ko- 
rea, and  wailing  in  the  household,  as  the  sacrificial  shears  were 
placed  at  the  roots  of  this  worshipful  tuft  of  hair. 

The  removal  of  this  emblem  of  barbarism  was  warmly  ad- 
vocated by  the  more  intelligent  Koreans,  particularly  by  those 
who  had  travelled  in  America  and  Europe;  these  supported 
the  Japanese  in  having  it  abolished,  and  the  king  was  forced, 
not  only  to  sign  the  decree,  but  to  begin  its  enforcement  by 
having  his  own  hair  cut.  "  The  present  cropping  of  the  hair," 
so  runs  the  decree,  "  being  a  measure  both  advantageous  to 
the  preservation  of  health  and  convenient  for  the  transaction 
of  business,  our  sacred  lord  the  king,  having  in  view  both 
administrative  reform  and  national  aggrandizement,  has  taken 
the  lead  in  his  own  person.  All  the  subjects  of  Great  Korea 
should  respectfully  conform  to  his  majesty's  purpose." 

Now  if  the  Chinese  would  but  bow  their  stiff  necks  to  the 
prejudices  of  civilization,  and  cut  off  their  queues,  perhaps 
the  powers  of  Europe  would  forego  in  their  case  the  pleasures 
of  partition. 

The  enforcement  of  the  hair-cropping  edict  was  not  unat- 
tended by  riot.  What  rendered  it  the  more  obnoxious  to  the 
people  was  the  fact  that  priests  cut  the  hair  short;  and  be- 


THE  FAR  EAST  105 

sides  being  disgraced,  were  they  all  to  be  turned  into  odious 
priests?  Throughout  the  country  the  people  were  profoundly 
moved.  First  of  all  the  issue  was  forced  on  the  officials,  who 
if  they  cut  their  hair  were  mobbed  by  the  populace,  and  if  they 
disobeyed  the  edict  were  discharged  from  office.  The  disciples 
of  the  top-knot  desired  no  monk  magistrates  to  rule  over  them. 
Country  merchants  would  transact  no  business  in  the  city  until 
the  offending  tuft  was  removed,  and  with  cut  hair  they  dare 
not  return  to  their  homes.  So  matters  continued,  until  the 
llth  of  February,  1896,  when  the  king,  who  had  been  kept  in 
his  palace  in  state  confinement  by  Japanese  influence,  escaped 
to  the  Russian  embassy,  and  there  to  the  delight  of  his  millions 
of  loyal  subjects  cultivated  his  tuft  again.  A  new  edict  was 
issued  restoring  the  top-knot,  in  which  the  king  thus  reasoned. 
"As  to  the  cutting  of  the  top-knots,  what  can  we  say?  Is 
it  such  an  urgent  matter?  The  traitors,  by  using  force  and 
coercion,  brought  about  the  affair.  That  this  measure  was 
taken  against  our  will  is  no  doubt  known  to  all.  Nor  is  it 
our  wish  that  the  conservative  subjects  throughout  the  country, 
moved  to  righteous  indignation,  should  rise  up  as  they  have, 
circulating  false  rumors,  causing  death  and  injury  to  one  an- 
other, until  the  regular  troops  had  to  be  sent  to  suppress  the 
disturbances  by  force.  The  traitors  indulged  their  poisonous 
natures  in  everything.  Fingers  and  hair  would  fail  to  count 
their  crimes.  The  soldiers  are  our  children.  So  are  the  insur- 
gents. Cut  any  of  the  ten  fingers,  and  one  would  cause  as 
much  pain  as  another.  Fighting  long  continued  would  pour 
out  blood  and  heap  up  corpses,  hindering  communication  and 
traffic.  Alas!  if  this  continues  the  people  will  all  die.  The 
mere  contemplation  of  such  consequence  provokes  our  tears 
and  chills  our  heart.  We  desire  that  as  soon  as  orders  arrive 
the  soldiers  should  return  to  Seoul,  and  the  insurgents  to  their 
respective  places  and  occupations.  As  to  the  cutting  of  top- 
knots, no  one  shall  be  forced  in  this  respect,  nor  as  to  dress 
and  hats.  Do  as  you  please." 

On  the  same  day,  while  the  people  were  eagerly  devouring 
the  printed  repeal  of  the  hair-cropping  edict,  the  members  of 
the  king's  cabinet  who  had  favored  the  obnoxious  law,  all  of 
them  that  could  be  caught,  were  publicly  beheaded,  the  dead 
body  of  the  premier  being  insulted  and  mutilated  in  the  streets. 

The  king  of  Korea  is  friendly  to  foreigners,  and  is  not  averse 


106  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

to  progress,  though  it -was  with  reluctance  that  he  took  the 
oath  renouncing  the  suzerainty  of  China  and  political  reform 
on  receiving  from  Japan  the  gift  of  independence.  This  com- 
pulsory oath  was  taken  by  the  king  at  the  sacred  altar  of 
Pukhan,  in  the  depth  of  a  dark  pine  forest,  surrounded  by 
the  royal  family  and  nobles  and  high  dignitaries  of  the  court, 
on  the  8th  of  January,  1895. 

Prior  to  the  late  reorganized  government  of  Korea,  the 
system  which  prevailed  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Ming  dynasty 
of  China.  The  sovereign  was  absolute,  though  assisted  by  a 
cabinet.  The  eight  provinces  of  the  peninsula  were  each  under 
a  governor  and  his  magistrates,  who  controlled  the  local  gov- 
ernments, and  the  land  tax,  which  was  paid  in  kind.  The 
government  was  fast  falling  into  decay,  the  land  was  scourged 
by  officialism  and  corruption.  Then  came  Japan  with  her 
chastisements,  her  infliction  of  independence  from  China,  and 
her  reforms,  which  perhaps  saved  this  portion  of  the  Asiatic 
coast  from  European  greed. 

In  Korea,  Chinese  ascendency  came  naturally  from  near- 
ness of  territory  and  the  intercourse  of  centuries;  the  Japanese 
'are  now  exercising  a  mild  superintendence,  while  ascendant 
over  all  is  Russia.  Japan's  excuse  for  making  war  on  Korea, 
and  through  her  on  China,  was  the  misrule  and  corruption 
of  a  country  so  near  as  to  exercise  a  demoralizing  influence 
upon  her  own  people.  Her  real  object  is  seen  in  the  results: 
Korea  has  undoubtedly  been  benefited  and  is  now  independent, 
for  which  thanks  are  due  to  Japan,  and  Japan  secured  For- 
mosa, a  liberal  indemnity,  and  much  prestige.  Japan  felt  that 
she  had  moral  and  commercial  rights  in  Korea,  and  that  it  was 
her  province  to  abate  a  nuisance  at  her  door.  She  had  colonies 
at  Fusan,  and  for  centuries  her  fishermen  had  secured  rich 
returns  from  that  direction.  Japan  always  had  resented  the 
interference  of  China  in  Korean  affairs. 

The  difference  between  Russian  and  Japanese  influence  in 
Korea  is  that  the  latter  assumes  control  while  the  real  ascen- 
dency remains  with  the  former.  Now  that  the  suzerainty  of 
China  was  destroyed,  Korea  turned  from  the  destroyer  to  a 
stronger  and  more  sympathetic  power. 

Occupants  of  the  island  of  Formosa  are  Pepohoans,  Chinese, 
and  native  savages.  On  the  Kilai  plain  is  an  aboriginal  com- 
munity of  Malay  savages  lately  subdued  by  the  Chinese,  whose 


THE  FAR  EAST  107 

religion  they  abhor  and  whose  language  they  cannot  speak. 
The  Chinaman  calls  it  civilizing,  just  the  same  as  the  Euro- 
pean, to  catch  the  wild  islanders  and  teach  them  new  ways,  or 
drive  them  further  back  into  the  mountains  while  seizing  and 
partitioning  among  themselves  their  rice  lands  and  other  prop- 
erty. The  people  live  in  villages  walled  by  growing  bamboo 
beside  a  ditch,  as  the  natives  of  southern  California  used  to 
throw  around  their  rancheria  a  wall  of  cacti. 

In  the  onward  march  of  the  Malay  savage  toward  Chinese 
civilization,  it  is  not  until  he  has  well  advanced  that  the  era 
of  chop-sticks  is  reached,  rice  being  conveyed  to  the  mouth 
before  that  period  by  the  fingers  alone.  They  have  long  grown 
tobacco,  which  is  made  into  cigars  of  liberal  dimensions,  six 
or  eight  inches  long  and  an  inch  and  a  half  thick,  and  smoked 
by  men  women  and  children;  this  comfort,  with  the  betel-nut 
for  booziness,  tends  to  make  life  endurable,  notwithstanding 
the  sudden  rise  of  imperialism  in  the  United  States.  Japanese 
rule  in  Formosa  has  thus  far  proved  little  less  harmonious 
than  Spanish  rule  in  the  Philippines.  The  barbarous  tribes 
of  the  interior  revolted,  and  insurrection  among  the  southern 
tribes  resulted  in  battles  fought  near  Taichu  and  Taihoku  in 
which  the  natives  met  with  defeat. 


CHAPTER   VI 

EUBOPE    IN    ASIA 

Now  that  the  tsar  has  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  powers 
of  the  world  the  palpable  absurdity  of  each  maintaining  a  large 
number  of  its  people  as  trained  fighters,  at  the  cost  of  the  pro- 
ducing classes,  for  the  purpose  now  and  then  of  gladiatorial 
display,  would  it  not  be  well  for  some  one  to  call  a  convention 
to  pass  upon  a  few  simple  points  which  would  make  easier  the 
duties  of  teachers?  It  would  greatly  simplify  the  course  of 
education  if  a  few  questions  were  answered  by  those  who  deter- 
mine the  fate  of  nations,  as,  Is  it  settled  that  one  people  may 
seize  and  possess  themselves  of  the  property  of  another  people 
if  strong  enough  to  do  so?  If  not  strong  enough  alone,  may 
nations  rightfully  unite  to  despoil  another  nation?  If  so  may 
they  rightfully  unite  to  despoil  any  nation?  Call  it  settled  as 
good  politics  that  trained  men-slayers  may  be  turned  into  the 
forest  to  kill  the  inhabitants,  or  huddle  them  in  corners  to  die, 
on  the  ground  that  these  wild  lands  are  required  for  purposes 
of  civilization,  and  that  civilization  has  a  right  to  them;  does 
this  right  of  superior  strength  and  culture  apply  as  well  to 
the  half  savage,  or  to  the  quarter  savage;  and  if  so  how  civil- 
ized must  be  the  civilization,  and  how  savage  the  savagism 
before  the  Author  of  all  peoples,  and  all  power,  and  all  justice 
and  humanity  may  be  invoked  to  witness  the  righteousness  of 
the  robber's  cause?  Is  Germany  sufficiently  civilized  to  capt- 
ure and  partition  Central  America  on  this  hypothesis?  May 
the  powers  unite  and  demand  the  division  among  them  of 
Russia,  where  there  is  more  waste  land  than  in  Africa?  Spain 
wants  a  piece  of  China;  suppose  China  were  to  demand  the 
partition  of  Spain,  or  Italy,  among  the  powers  of  Asia. — 
that  is  to  say  the  emperors  of  China  and  Japan,  and  Aguinaldo, 
emperor  of  the  Philippines, — could  the  plea  be  justly  set  up 
that  Spain  and  Italy  were  too  advanced  and  the  powers  of  Asia 

108 


EUROPE   IN   ASIA  109 

not  advanced  enough  to  permit  of  such  a  course?  And  this 
too  when  Romulus  and  Remus  were  sucking  the  wolf  while  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Far  East  were  studying  the  stars  of  heaven? 
Is  isolation  a  crime?  If  not  why  is  China  punished  for  it? 
If  so,  how  much  of  isolation  may  the  anti-imperialists  of  the 
United  States  be  permitted  to  indulge  in  before  England  has 
the  international  right  to  come  thundering  at  our  portal,  de- 
manding the  door  to  be  opened?  Is  exclusiveness  a  crime?  If 
not,  why  is  China  punished  for  it?  If  so,  why  are  not  Aus- 
tralia and  America  punished  for  excluding  the  Chinese?  Old 
men  and  old  women  and  old  nations  are  a  nuisance  and  deserve 
obliteration;  how  old  or  weak  or  useless  must  a  man  or  woman 
or  nation  become  in  order  to  justify  extermination?  Could 
some  of  these  questions,  round  which  the  diplomats  keep  up 
their  war  dance,  be  settled  for  the  benefit  of  the  simple,  how 
much  clearer  to  the  mind  would  be  the  studies  of  international 
ethics  and  economics! 

Coming  up  from  the  south  coastwise  in  1590,  Portuguese 
navigators  sighted  on  their  right  high  mountains  covered  with 
green  foliage,  and  down  whose  sides  fell  silvery  cascades  on 
which  danced  the  bright  moonlight,  while  feathery  bamboo 
fanned  the  terraced  foothills  below.  "  Ilha  formosa!  "  they 
cried,  "  Beautiful  isle!  "  And  the  Malayan  or  aboriginal  name 
of  Pekando  was  dropped,  among  foreigners  at  least,  the  island 
becoming  known  to  commerce  as  Formosa.  The  Portuguese 
settled  there,  and  for  a  time  were  unmolested  by  any  of  their 
friends  from  Europe. 

But  long  before  this,  in  1514,  the  Portuguese  had  found 
themselves  in  a  Chinese  port,  and  three  years  later  Andrada 
had  made  a  trading  voyage  to  Canton.  And  while  at  one  time 
Formosa  was  under  their  sway,  only  Macao  became  a  perma- 
nent dependency  of  the  Portuguese  in  the  Far  East.  Macao, 
once  the  seat  of  commerce  in  this  region  has  fallen  into  deca- 
dence. Of  the  port  and  town  the  Portuguese  obtained  control 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century;  merchants  became 
wealthy  as  the  town  rose  to  be  one  of  the  chief  commercial 
marts  of  the  East,  and  well-filled  storehouses  and  sumptuous 
dwellings  followed.  The  Spaniards  were  on  the  coast  of  China 
soon  after  the  Portuguese,  trading  there  from  the  Philippines 
since  1543.  Afterward,  when  Spain  and  Portugal  were  under 
one  crown,  they  had  two  forts  in  Formosa. 


110  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Queen  Elizabeth  of  England  made  unsuccessful  advances 
to  the  emperor  in  1596  to  open  trade  with  China,  and  another 
futile  attempt  was  made  in  1637,  when  Captain  Weddell  was 
sent  with  an  English  fleet  to  Canton.  Holland  found  her  way 
to  the  Far  East,  after  securing  independence  in  Europe, 
through  war  with  Spain,  attacking  her  Asiatic  possessions  and 
capturing  Malacca.  But  repulsed  at  Macao  in  1622,  the  Dutch 
gained  a  foothold  in  the  Pescadores  and  in  Formosa.  Then  in 
1624  the  Dutch  appeared  farther  up  the  coast,  and  two  years 
before  the  Spaniards  came.  The  Spaniards  were  driven  away 
by  the  Dutch  in  1642,  and  the  Dutch  were  driven  away  by 
the  Chinese  pirate,  Koxinga,  who  proclaimed  himself  king.  In 
1683  Koxinga's  successor  was  expelled  by  the  emperor  of 
China,  who  first  made  the  island  a  dependency  of  Fukien  prov- 
ince, and  in  1887  erected  it  into  a  province  of  the  empire.  At 
the  end  of  the  war  which  broke  out  in  1894,  the  island  was 
ceded  to  Japan,  and  the  flag  of  the  rising  sun  floated  over 
Formosa. 

The  Dutchman  De  Vrees  discovered  the  Kuriles  in  1634, 
the  Russians  knowing  nothing  of  these  islands  until  1711,  when 
Kamchatka  was  visited  by  Japanese  traders.  After  that  the 
fur  tax  was  collected  there,  and  in  1795  the  Eussian  American 
company  established  a  factory  at  Urup. 

The  world,  when  first  it  became  known  to  Europe  in  its 
entirety,  was  partitioned  among  the  powers,  the  pope  finally 
dividing  the  unclaimed  remnant  between  Spain  and  Portugal. 
After  some  three  centuries  the  American  colonies  for  the  most 
part  achieved  their  independence.  After  a  period  of  rest  Eng- 
land turned  her  attention  to  modern  territorial  expansion,  se- 
curing vast  additions  to  her  domain  in  Africa  and  in  Asia. 
Russia,  already  possessor  of  a  large  part  of  the  world,  likewise 
began  to  add  territory,  so  that  most  of  the  available  lands  of 
the  temperate  zones  were  in  time  secured  by  these  two  powers. 
Then  France  and  Germany,  perceiving  somewhat  late  that  they 
must  have  somewhere  more  lands  or  become  second  or  third 
rate  powers,  set  out  in  search  of  territory,  and  the  struggle 
between  them  all  has  been  fierce  for  a  foothold  in  every  part 
of  the  earth. 

The  policy  which  Count  Goluchowski  would  have  Europe 
enforce  in  Asia  is  the  policy  of  foreign  influence  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  home  interests,  the  policy  of  selfishness,  of  mo- 


EUROPE   IN   ASIA  111 

uopoly,  repression,  and  closed  ports.  Great  Britain  has  ever 
contended  for  free  commercial  interchange  for  all  the  world, 
with  local  self-government,  and  the  taxes  of  colonists  to  be 
imposed  by  themselves  and  for  their  own  benefit. 

Obviously  the  inhabitants  of  equatorial  regions  are  not  such 
as  rise  to  culture  and  self-government,  and  are  destined  there- 
fore to  be  ruled  by  some  power  stronger  than  themselves.  In 
pursuance  of  the  law  based  upon  the  tendencies  of  the  race  to 
the  gratification  of  its  ever-increasing  necessities,  the  bountiful 
food-producing  areas  under  the  equator  are  fast  falling  into 
northern  hands.  Now  that  so  much  of  this  so  greatly  to  be 
desired  domain  has  been  unexpectedly  added  to  our  republic, 
what  folly  it  would  be  to  relinquish  it  either  to  those  too  weak 
to  hold  it,  or  to  those  whose  passion  and  policy  it  is  to  grasp 
and  hold  too  much. 

Western  civilization  has  the  ascendancy  the  world  over,  and 
were  the  nations  united  they  might  easily  parcel  out  and  possess 
the  remainder  of  the  earth  among  them.  But  robbery  must 
have  a  reason;  there  must  be  present  always  some  moral,  po- 
litical, or  commercial  necessity  to  serve  as  an  excuse  for  the 
commission  of  national  crimes;  otherwise  the  remaining  por- 
tions of  weak  and  unappropriated  Asia  would  soon  be  taken. 
Eternal  justice  has  found  its  way  thus  far,  but  seems  unable 
to  abolish  international  crime  altogether.  Apart  from  Africa, 
the  world's  tropical  lands  are  finding  rapid  partition.  During 
the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  five  millions  of 
square  miles  of  tropical  lands  were  secured  by.  continental 
Europe,  while  to  the  United  States  fell  also  some  square  miles. 
In  the  conquest  and  partition  of  the  world,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
understand  the  principle  on  which  the  plan  is  worked  in  cases 
where  the  occupants  of  valuable  lands  are  naked  savages.  It 
is  the  right  of  the  strong  to  despoil  the  weak;  and  so  the 
aboriginal  Americans  are  killed  off  almost  to  a  man,  Australia 
is  burned  over,  and  Africa  is  divided.  But  why  China  next? 
The  celestial  empire  has  returned  to  earth  and  is  now  rapidly 
enrobing  in  the  new  civilization,  which  Europe  says  she  must 
wear  or  die.  Awhile  ago  it  was  European  religion  that  defence- 
less savages  must  adopt;  now  it  is  European  culture,  the  sin- 
cerity of  the  French,  the  integrity  of  the  Italian,  and  the  honor 
of  the  Spaniard  must  be  imitated  in  order  to  be  saved.  Certain 
beasts  of  the  forest,  when  one  of  their  number  becomes  old 


113  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

and  disabled,  rush  upon  it  and  tread  it  to  death.  Let  the 
powers  look  at  their  neighbor  of  the  Peninsula,  and  then,  if 
they  will,  have  at  him.  If  chronic  revolution  and  unrest,  with- 
out half  the  progress  that  China  is  making,  are  sufficient  excuse, 
there  are  Central  and  South  America,  whose  lands  are  rich 
and  whose  people  are  weak  and  ignorant.  While  the  European 
powers  to  some  extent  deem  it  essential  to  their  position  in 
the  world  to  secure,  each  for  itself,  as  much  as  possible  of  such 
portions  of  the  earth  as  have  not  yet  been  seized  by  civiliza- 
tion, there  have  been  many  leading  statesmen,  particularly  in 
England,  who  regard  territorial  extension  undesirable,  and  who 
would  refuse  fresh  accession  of  domain  even  when  offered 
free — among  others  Lord  Palmerston,  Mr  Disraeli,  and  Mr 
Gladstone.  The  possession  and  protection  of  undesirable  coun- 
tries are  a  source  of  weakness  to  a  nation;  and  this  has  led  to 
refusals  on  the  part  of  England  and  the  United  States  of  an- 
nexations on  any  terms.  Yet  it  is  found  necessary  at  times 
to  annex  or  assume  protection  over  distant  lands  which  may 
be  necessary  to  our  interests,  or  lest  they  fall  into  unfriendly 
hands. 

The  influence  of  Anglo-saxon  rule  over  Asiatics  is  aptly 
illustrated  at  Hongkong,  where  the  government  is  British  and 
the  people  part  white  and  part  yellow.  The  Chinamen  here 
not  only  become  good  citizens  but.  successful  merchants  and 
manufacturers,  sometimes  rising  from  the  coolie  state  to  high 
positions.  The  coolies  are  not  only  common  laborers,  but 
sometimes  pedlers  or  petty  artisans,  until  by  virtue  of  thrift 
and  ability  they  lift  themselves  up,  Englishmen  helping  rather 
than  deterring  them.  The  Chinaman  is  a  natural  speculator, 
and  makes  daring  ventures,  whether  in  commerce  or  on  the 
gambling  table.  When  he  sets  himself  up  in  the  attitude 
of  respectability,  with  the  Englishman  present  for  patron  and 
ox-ample,  he  can  be  as  honest  shrewd  and  energetic  as  any  one. 
Much  of  the  wealth  in  the  colony  of  Hongkong  is  in  the  hands 
of  the  Chinese.  When  the  gold  fever  first  raged  in  California, 
in  1849;  when  the  Panama  railroad  was  being  constructed  in 
1852;  and  again  in  1865  when  the  Central  and  Union  Pacific 
were  hurrying  forward  their  overland  railway,  thousands  of 
coolies,  and  many  of  a  better  class,  poured  from  every  quarter 
into  Hongkong  to  find  passage,  and  employment  as  contract 
laborers  or  otherwise.  The  contracting  for  and  transportation 


EUROPE    IN    ASIA  113 

of  coolies  became  a  profitable  business,  and  materially  assisted 
the  Hongkong  colony  to  gain  a  foothold  on  the  Asiatic  coast 
at  the  most  critical  period  of  its  history.  The  coolie  traffic 
which  before  this  was  mainly  with  Singapore,  Peru,  and  the 
West  Indies,  was  thus  diverted  to  the  United  States,  and  Cen- 
tral and  South  America,  and  later  to  British  Columbia  and 
Australia,  the  Malay  peninsula  and  the  Pacific  islands.  There 
are  few  places  on  earth,  be  they  wet  or  dry,  hot  or  cold,  health- 
ful or  reeking  with  malaria  where  the  Chinaman  will  not  go 
when  invited  by  what  seems  to  him  his  interests.  And  he 
makes  the  best  of  colonists,  being  patient,  adaptive,  and  in- 
dustrious. He  lives  on  little  and  seldom  complains.  He  makes 
himself  equally  at  home  in  Siberia  or  Burmah,  in  Alaska  or  in 
the  Hawaiian  or  Philippine  islands.  If  fairly  treated  by  con-, 
tractors  and  employers,  these  migrations  might  become  bene- 
ficial to  all  concerned.  The  British  treatment  of  the  Chinese 
is  a  matter  of  policy,  and  dealings  with  them  have  been  no 
less  successful  at  the  Straits  and  Rangoon  than  in  China. 

Nothing  shows  more  clearly  Anglo-saxon  influence  in  Japan 
than  party  government.  Thinking  that  German  institutions 
would  better  fit  the  Japanese  mind,  the  constitution  of  Japan 
was  largely  modeled  on  that  of  Russia,  while  codes  of  pro- 
cedure, army  organization,  and  educational  administration  are 
essentially  German.  But  the  Russian  system  as  embodied  in 
the  constitution  of  Japan  was  found  to  be  not  altogether  prac- 
ticable, and  so  was  modified  from  time  to  time,  and  made  to 
fit  emergencies,  the  new  workings  leaning  decidedly  to  the 
English  system.  Fifty  Japanese  speak  English  where  one 
speaks  Russian,  and  the  English  language  and  American  law 
are  prominent  in  the  open  ports. 

The  political  weakness  of  China  is  due  primarily  to  physical 
causes,  which  indeed  may  all  be  referred  to  one  cause,  the 
absence  of  facilities  for'  easy  and  rapid  intercommunication, 
all  the  more  necessary  where  the  empire  is  so  vast  and  the 
emperor  so  exclusive.  True,  they  have  waterways,  but  civili- 
zation and  commerce  never  have  reached  the  stage  where  long 
distances  can  be  traversed  in  regular  traffic  by  either  men 
or  merchandise.  The  various  near  and  distant  provinces,  sepa- 
rated by  great  rivers,  mountains,  and  marshes,  with  dialects 
many  of  them  so  different  that  they  cannot  be  understood 
one  district  by  another;  the  ignorance,  superstition,  and  des- 


114:  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

potic  rule  which  attends  their  poor  development;  the  imposi- 
tion of  burdensome  taxes,  the  poverty  of  the  people,  and  the 
absence  of  inspiriting  songs,  books,  and  speeches  promoting 
patriotism,  all  have  a  tendency  toward  provincial  autonomy 
on  the  part  of  the  ruling  class,  and  for  the  people  at  large 
a  selfish  disregard  of  others,  near  or  far,  lack  of  any  conception 
of  public  duties,  hatred  toward  rulers,  and  utter  indifference 
as  to  the  country  at  large,  whether  it  be  at  war  or  peace,  tribu- 
tary or  independent,  prosperous  or  otherwise,  whether  the  em- 
peror is  well  or  ill,  wise  or  foolish,  the  empire  united  or  broken, 
or  whether  or  not  there  be  any  emperor  or  empire. 

China's  safety,  if  she  has  any,  lies  in  the  avariciousness  and 
greed  of  her  spoilers,  who  jealously  watch  lest  one  of  them 
should  get  the  better  of  the  others.  Were  the  crowned  heads 
of  Europe  and  their  ministers  all  to  read  the  Chinese  classics, 
and  practise  the  teachings  of  heathen  diplomacy,  there  would 
come  a  reign  of  righteousness  such  as  has  never  yet  appeared 
in  Christendom.  To  quote  the  words  of  one  Chinese  diplomat 
only,  Viceroy  Tseng  of  Nanking,  who  said,  "What  is  bene- 
ficial to  us  and  not  injurious  to  you,  I  demand;  what  is  bene- 
ficial to  you  and  not  injurious  to  us,  I  concede." 

Restricted  in  their  limits  at  home  by  lines  which  those  who 
have  the  balancing  of  power  will  not  allow  to  be  broken,  the 
nations  of  Europe  feel  that  they  must  have  territory  abroad 
at  any  cost.  As  Curzon  says  of  English  commerce:'  "How 
vital  is  its  maintenance,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  our  empire 
but  for  the  sustenance  of  our  people,  no  arguments  are  needed 
to  prove.  It  is  only  in  the  East,  and  especially  in  the  Far 
East,  that  we  may  still  hope  to  keep  and  to  create  open  markets 
for  British  manufactures.  Every  port,  every  town,  and  every 
village  that  passes  into  French  or  Eussian  hands  is  an  outlet 
lost  to  Manchester,  Bradford,  or  Bombay." 

Two  agencies  are  offered  the  powers1  of  the  world  with  which 
to  break  the  barriers  of  Chinese  exclusiveness,  namely,  war 
and  diplomacy,  both  of  which  are  employed,  the  former  fre- 
quently with  the  more  decisive  results.  The  great  obstacle 
to  diplomatic  intercourse  in  the  first  instance  was  the  concep- 
tion the  Chinese  had  of  themselves  and  others,  that  there  was 
but  one  celestial  and  civilized  people  on  earth,  and  to  this  all 
nations  must  bow.  Until  Europeans  thundered  at  the  door  in 
the  name  of  friendship,  China  had  no  friend  or  equal  among 


EUROPE   IN   ASIA  115 

nations,  but  only  dependencies  and  tribute-payers,  whose  sov- 
ereigns must  enter  the  sacred  presence,  if  at  all,  in  such  atti- 
tudes of  grovelling  subjection  as  no  European  plenipotentiary 
would  by  any  means  assume,  even  before  offsprings  of  heaven. 
They  are  just  now  learning  the  lesson  that  there  exist  else- 
where their  equals,  and  perhaps  in  some  things  even  their 
superiors. 

Western  civilization  signified  in  China  warships,  Christian- 
ity, opium,  railways,  telegraphs;  they  wanted  none  of  these, 
and  did  their  best  to  stamp  them  out  as  soon  as  they  appeared. 
In  opposing  opium,  they  encountered  disastrous  war.  The 
first  telegraph  line,  established  about  1858  by  an  English  mer- 
chant to  operate  between  Shanghai  andWusung,  was  destroyed 
by  a  mob  with  the  secret  approbation  of  the  authorities,  who 
feared  with  the  true  instinct  of  weakness  the  presence  of  for- 
eign influence.  The  first  railway,  begun  at  Shanghai,  was  pur- 
chased by  the  authorities  and  destroyed.  No  progress  could 
be  made  toward  the  enlightenment  of  the  Chinese  save  by  war; 
and  to  protect  themselves  from  the  attacks  of  foreigners,  they 
were  forced  to  adopt  foreign  devices,  as  a  telegraph  in  For- 
mosa to  give  information  of  the  movements  of  the  Japanese, 
the  purchase  of  warships,  and  the  construction  of  a  railway 
from  Tientsin  toward  the  northeast,  to  frustrate  if  possible 
Russia's  Siberian  scheme. 

The  day  of  China's  deliverance  from  herself  is  long  in  com- 
ing, but  let  us  hope  will  come  at  last.  Let  us  recall  how  in- 
terest in  the  west  was  first  awakened  by  the  travellers  Polo 
and  Mandeville,  and  what  Europe  was  then,  and  what  Asia 
was.  When  Vasco  da  Gama  rounded  the  cape  of  Good  Hope 
and  Yernak  crossed  the  Ural,  two  paths  were  opened  to  eastern 
Asia,  which  were  soon  filled  with  lovers  of  lust  and  power, 
and  pilgrims  to  the  shrine  of  mammon.  First  were  the  Rus- 
sians, themselves  a  tribe  of  Tartars,  and  conquered  by  a  son 
of  Genghis  Khan.  They  were  then  feeble,  and  far  away,  and 
China  was  not  afraid  of  them.  Their  agents  and  emissaries 
found  entrance  to  Peking,  and  in  due  time  they  obtained  the 
cession  of  the  region  watered  by  the  lower  Amur,  with  a 
thousand  miles  of  seacoast,  including  part  of  Manchuria.  When 
China  saw  to  what  a  colossus  her  pigmy  had  grown,  saw  mili- 
tary and  naval  fortresses  erected  near  her  border  and  within 
easy  access  of  her  capital,  she  was  indeed  troubled.  Yet  Russia 


116  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

and  China  have  managed  to  live  of  late  without  much  fighting. 
Overstepping  their  boundary  during  the  reign  of  Kanghi,  the 
Chinese  captured  the  garrison  at  Albazin,  but  the  Russians 
took  no  lasting  offense.  War  was  threatened  in  1880  over  the 
recovery  of  Hi,  which  territory  Russia  had  occupied  during 
a  Mohammedan  revolt,  but  China's  superior  diplomacy,  and 
the  pacific  influence  of  General  Gordon,  averted  bloodshed. 
No  small  anxiety  has  come  from  the  building  so  near  the  Chi- 
nese border  of  the  transsiberian  railway,  not  so  much  on  ac- 
count of  its  agency  in  war,  as  a  means  of  peopling  the  con- 
tiguous country  in  times  of  peace.  Though  Russia  is  quiet 
and  friendly,  she  is  watchful,  and  doubts  not  in  the  least  the 
ultimate  ownership  of  northern  China,  with  imperial  Peking 
as  its  capital. 

Give  her  time  enough  and  China  will  drop  into  line  among 
the  progressive  nations  of  the  earth.  But  the  time  required 
is  not  a  little.  Having  been  so  long  half-civilized,  as  it  is  called, 
while  nations  who  imagine  themselves  now  wholly  civilized 
were  yet  man-eating  savages,  and  with  an  egotism  far  more 
rank  and  insufferable  than  any  possessed  by  her  superiors,  the 
time  enough  required  by  China  to  emerge  from  her  present 
idiocy,  and  begin  to  see  things  as  they  are,  will  it  is  to  be 
feared  be  indeed  long.  As  elsewhere  remarked,  the  empire  fills 
the  north  temperate  zone,  on  the  same  lines  that  mark  the 
latitudes  of  the  United  States  and  Europe.  No  wonder  the 
powers  bend  on  this  piece  of  earth  the  evil  eye,  for  there  is 
no  more  like  it  remaining  which  is  available  for  looting;  that 
is  to  say  inhabited  by  weak  and  vain  peoples  feeble  with  age 
or  fresh  with  savagism.  And  however  the  Chinese  may  love 
isolation,  and  hate  the  contaminating  presence  of  foreigners; 
however  opposed  they  may  be  to  imperialism  and  expansion, 
it  was  not  always  so,  in  regard  to  themselves  at  least.  There 
are  here  the  territory,  the  people,  and  the  wealth  to  become 
a  great  nation.  And  although  Europe  has  no  more  right  to 
seize  and  partition  China  than  China  has  to  seize  and  partition 
Europe,  yet  it  is  the  destiny  of  the  weak  to  fall  before  the 
strong;  therefore  China  would  do  well  straightway  to  strength- 
en herself,  not  by  the  multiplication  of  men  and  gods,  but 
by  centralizing  the  strength  and  resources  of  the  nations  under 
more  concentrated  authority.  China  just  now  wants  a  man 
for  chief  ruler,  not  a  god. 


EUROPE   IK   ASIA  11? 

Among  the  many  reforms  which  western  civilization  is  in- 
rlicting  on  the  eastern  is  that  of  enforced  cleanliness,  political, 
moral,  and  municipal.  The  bribery  of  magistrates,  the  pecu- 
lations of  officials,  the  immorality  and  criminality  of  all  those 
who  live  by  grinding  the  poor,  all  these  and  like  evils  are 
severely  rebuked  by  foreigners,  and  under  their  influence  are 
gradually  diminishing.  The  filth  of  a  thousand  years  is  being 
removed  from  the  streets  of  cities,  and  the  political  slums  are 
also  becoming  somewhat  renovated,  that  is  to  say  where  Ameri- 
can or  European  influence  obtains. 

We  do  not  find  in  the  governments  of  Europe  now  the  same 
disposition  as  formerly  to  snatch  from  each  other  territory 
once  clearly  possessed,  though  the  feud  between  France  and 
Germany  over  the  Rhine  provinces  might  seem  to  point  that 
way.  There  must  be  some  show  of  weakness,  of  incapacity,  or 
cruelty  as  a  pretext  for  intervention  on  the  part  of  the  stronger 
power.  The  tendency  is  somewhat  so  now  abroad,  and  let  us 
hope  it  will  become  more  so,  and  also  that  the  Asiatics  them- 
selves will  become  a  little  more  decent,  according  to  European 
standards.  Meanwhile  there  is  little  wonder  that  in  the  imme- 
diate juxtaposition  of  western  civilization  and  the  oriental  type 
there  should  be  wry  faces  made  and  prejudices  to  overcome. 
Each  thinks  his  own  way  the  best,  at  all  events  is  perfectly  sat- 
isfied with  the  existing  state  of  things,  and  desires  no  change. 

What  is  the  inherent  force  which  has  so  long  held  the 
Chinese  nation  together,  when  all  the  other  nations  of  the 
earth  have  been  falling  in  pieces?  Is  it  a  force  for  good  or 
for  evil?  The  temper  of  the  people  is  pacific,  and  the  gov- 
ernment has  never  been  aggressive;  are  these  qualities  which 
tend  to  national  longevity;  and  is  national  longevity  desirable 
or  otherwise;  and  if  desirable  why  is  the  system  which  pro- 
duces such  results  so  much  more  reprehensible  than  a  system 
which  tends  to  disruption  and  decay?  While  all  the  other 
nations  of  the  earth  have  been  coming  and  going,  rising  and 
declining,  fighting  and  annihilating  each  other,  China  has 
been  quietly  attending  to  her  own  affairs,  in  her  own  way,  most 
of  the  time  in  advance  of  other  nations,  much  of  the  time  in 
advance  of  the  nations  which  are  now  so  far  in  advance  of  her. 

Prior  to  the  consolidation  in  240  B  C,  the  empire  had  been 
but  a  union  of  principalities,  when  diplomacy  was  a  fine  art 
as  in  Italy  in  the  days  of  Machiavelli.  But  when  all  became 


118  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

one,  and  that  one  without  an  equal,  there  was  little  room 
for  diplomatic  discussion,  and  the  empire  lapsed  into  a  silence, 
which  western  Europe  with  their  better  guns  alone  could  break. 
In  1866  Pinchun,  a  Manchu  prefect,  was  induced  to  visit  for- 
eign parts  as  a  diplomatic  scout.  The  following  year  Anson 
Burlingame,  formerly  United  States  minister  to  China,  was 
given  an  imperial  commission  to  the  treaty  powers,  and  with 
two  native  officials  visited  the  United  States  and  Europe  on 
behalf  of  China,  with  a  view  to  gain  time  for  further  reflection 
rather  than  hasten  into  distasteful  diplomatic  relations.  After 
this  Chunghau  was  sent  as  envoy  to  France,  and  later,  in  1878, 
on  a  mission  to  Eussia;  Kuo  Sungtao  was  sent  as  minister  to 
England  and  Germany,  Chenlanpin  and  Yung  Wing  to  the 
United  States,  and  Hojuchang  and  Changluseng  to  Japan. 
Thus  legations  were  established  in  the  west,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  her  history  nations  were  visited  and  plenipotentiaries 
received  on  terms  of  equality.  This  was  pronounced  by  a  Chi- 
nese statesman,  the  "  greatest  political  revolution  that  has  taken 
place  since  the  abolition  of  the  feudal  system,  in  the  days  of 
the  builder  of  the  great  wall." 

Perhaps  the  defunct  civilization  of  the  Far  East  can  never 
be  vitalized  within,  if  so  let  improvement  come  from  without. 
Superstitions  and  sovereign  power  must  be  in  some  degree 
restricted  while  the  light  of  a  more  intelligent  culture  is  made 
to  penetrate  the  dark  places.  But  spheres  of  influence,  and 
all  that,  are  too  shadowy  a  title  to  exclusive  rights  in  large 
areas  of  barbaric  lands.  This  bold,  bald  trickery  is  but  the 
fresh  hold  taken  of  his  victim  by  the  strangler  preparatory 
to  the  final  catastrophe.  In  Africa,  boundary  lines  of  posses- 
sion and  spheres  of  influence  are  by  mutual  arrangement  of 
the  powers  marked  out  and  allowed,  though  the  same  euphem- 
ism is  employed  to  cover  the  crime.  Still  longer  in  Asia  this 
process  of  cutting  up  and  allotting  has  been  going  on,  in 
Turkey  and  Afghanistan,  in  Persia  Siam  and  China,  until 
scarcely  a  nation  there  is  independent  of  Europe,  whose  gov- 
ernments strike  their  talons  deep  into  the  flesh  of  any  weaker 
people  whose  possessions  are  worth  the  taking. 

The  contentions  of  the  great  European  powers  are  for  the 
most  part  childish  in  the  extreme,  therefore  selfish  and  silly 
as  appearing  in  any  person  or  power  pretending  to  greatness. 
Thus  when  in  1898  a  petition  from  his  people  to  construct 


EUROPE   IN   ASIA  119 

a  railway  from  Tientsin  to  Shanghai  was  granted  to  the  em- 
peror, the  German  minister  protested,  and  the  permission  was 
withdrawn.  Commenting  on  which  the  China  Gazette  says: 
"  We  stated  in  our  issue  of  the  24th  of  February  that  a  taotai 
named  Yung  had  memorialized  the  throne  for  permission  to 
construct  a  railway  through  Chihli  and  Kiangsu,  to  which 
several  governors,  viceroys,  and  other  high  Chinese  officials  for 
various  reasons  objected.  It  was  first  proposed  that  the  railway 
should  run  from  Tientsin  to  Chinkiang,  touching  Shantung 
at  one  or  two  points  along  its  route.  The  native  press  now 
reports  that  the  German  minister  in  Peking  also  protested 
against  the  enterprise,  alleging  that  the  German  rights  to  rail- 
way construction  in  Shantung  were  involved.  Taotai  Yung 
proposed  that  he  should  obtain  the  aid  of  American  capitalists 
and  engineers  to  carry  out  the  undertaking,  and  the  German 
minister  says  that  Germany  has  obtained  the  sole  right  to  in- 
vest capital  and  supply  engineers  for  railway  construction  in 
every  part  of  the  province  of  Shantung,  on  which  grounds  he 
strenuously  opposed  the  scheme  proposed  by  Taotai  Yung. 
The  latter,  therefore,  altered  his  scheme  so  far  as  to  provide 
that  the  proposed  railway  should  not  clash  with  the  interests 
of  the  line  which  the  Germans  say  they  are  going  to  build 
from  Kyao-chau  to  Ichow,  with  which  alteration  the  German 
minister  professed  himself  satisfied." 

The  empire  is  making  some  progress,  and  will  make  more. 
Burlingame  in  his  time  spoke  of  the  extended  business  and 
reformed  revenue  system;  the  change  in  the  naval  and  mili- 
tary organizations;  and  the  establishing  at  Peking  of  a  uni- 
versity where  modern  science  and  modern  languages  were 
taught.  A  railway  line  was  opened  from  Shanghai  to  Wusung 
in  1876,  and  was  so  largely  patronized  by  the  natives  as  to 
excite  official  jealousy,  and  was  closed  in  consequence  the 
following  year.  A  railway  was  ordered  built,  in  1886,  from 
Tientsin  to  Tungcho,  to  be  continued  to  Peking,  but  was 
countermanded  because  a  fire  broke  out  in  the  palace,  and 
the  Temple  of  Heaven  was  struck  by  lightning.  According 
to  an  imperial  decree  issued  at  Peking  in  March  1899,  the 
Chinese  government  decided  to  hasten  forward  the  construc- 
tion of  railways,  building  trunk  lines  first  and  branch  roads 
afterward,  the  first  being  the  Lu  Huan  and  Hankau-Canton 
railway,  the  Tientsin-Chinkiang  line  next,  and  then  the  Shan 
5 


120  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

Haikuan,  the  Nieuchwang,  beyond  the  Moukden,  and  others. 
A  company  capitalized  at  $40,000,000,  under  the  leadership 
of  Calvin  S.  Brice,  obtained  a  concession  to  build  the  railway 
from  Hankau  to  Canton,  and  to  the  sea  opposite  Hongkong, 
traversing  one  of  the  richest  districts  in  the  Chinese  empire. 
The  political  significance  of  this  enterprise  is  apparent  when 
we  consider  that  it  originated  at  Hankau,  near  the  so-called 
Eussian  sphere  of  influence,  passes  through  a  section  where 
English  influence  predominates,  and  reaches  Canton  on  the 
northern  boundary  of  French  interests,  as  previously  men- 
tioned. The  material  for  the  construction  of  this  road  was  to 
be  drawn  largely  from  the  American  coast. 

The  construction  of  the  railway  from  Peking  to  Hankau, 
half  of  the  distance  from  Peking  to  Canton,  was  given  to 
the  management  of  Belgium,  that  nation  being  neutral  as  a 
military  power,  though  industrially  active.  As  the  Belgian 
syndicate  obtained  a  large  part  of  the  necessary  funds  from 
France,  the  jealousy  of  England  and  Eussia  was  aroused,  as 
thereby  the  French  would  gain  undue  influence  in  this  quar- 
ter. The  Chinese  had  long  wanted  a  railway  from  Peking 
to  Canton,  though  certain  Europeans  who  seek  to  rob  them  of 
their  country,  their  religion,  their  civilization,  say  that  they 
are  not  progressive,  as  if  that  were  a  crime.  The  Chinese 
preferred  the  Belgians  to  build  this  road,  because  the  celestials 
supposed  that  the  Belgians  were  not  in  a  position  to  take  over 
the  whole  country  for  their  trouble,  on  some  murdered  mis- 
sionary or  other  pretext.  The  distance  is  780  miles,  the  road 
to  be  completed  in  1903. 

The  first  railway  in  Asiatic  Eussia  was  in  the  lieutenancy  of 
Caucasia,  and  completed  in  1872.  There  is  now  in  operation 
part  of  the  great  overland  Siberian  railway,  which  with  the 
seventy  steamers  and  hundreds  of  other  craft  on  the  Amur, 
supersede  the  old-time  camel  caravans.  It  required  50,000 
dromedaries  for  the  tea  service  alone  across  the  plains  of 
Mongolia,  and  the  railway  to  Vladivostok  places  China  and 
Japan  within  twenty-one  days  of  western  Europe.  The  tsar 
is  greatly  interested  in  his  Siberian  railway,  and  in  order  to 
accomplish  more  work  of  this  kind  he  would  like  to  lay  aside 
war  for  a  time.  The  road  is  solidly  built,  with  steel  bridges, 
track  well  ballasted,  fine  offices,  and  stations,  of  stone  and 
brick,  extensive  workshops,  all  neat  and  substantial,  and 


EUROPE   IN    ASIA  I'M 

more  like  an  English  than  an  American  railway.  The  towns 
are  full  of  life  and  enterprise.  The  lands  through  which  the 
road  runs  for  some  distance  are  well  occupied  with  thrifty 
people,  who  if  not  possessing  great  wealth  have  among  them 
no  poverty.  Grain  is  extensively  grown  in  this  region,  and 
there  are  several  large  flouring  mills  along  the  first  400  versts 
of  the  railway.  Great  military  stations  are  likewise  frequent. 
On  the  15th  of  December  1898  the  French  chamber  of  depu- 
ties adopted  a  bill  loaning  200,000,000  francs  for  the  con- 
struction of  Indo-Chinese  railways. 

The  United  States  furnished  China  with  her  first  steam- 
boat, which  was  built  by  Russell  and  company  and  placed  on 
the  Yangtse  river,  coasting  also  between  Canton,  Shanghai, 
and  Tientsin.  In  1862  the  Shanghai  Navigation  company 
was  formed,  and  the  American  steamers  transferred  to  it. 
Under  government  authorization,  and  composed  entirely  of 
Chinamen,  the  China  Merchants  Steam  Navigation  company 
was  formed  in  1877,  with  all  the  old  and  several  new  Ameri- 
can boats.  A  network  of  railway  and  steamboat  lines  through- 
out the  Chinese  empire  would  indeed  bring  about  a  trans- 
formation; and  there  are  native  men  and  native  resources 
on  the  ground  for  its  accomplishment,  but  whether  or  not 
when  it  is  done  there  will  be  any  thing  left  for  Chinamen, 
or  indeed  any  Chinamen  left,  is  a  question. 

China's  first  knowledge  of  England  was  when  the  latter  be- 
gan the  acquisition  of  part  of  the  former  empire  of  the  great 
mogul,  and  the  expansion  of  the  Bombay  colony  set  in  which 
was  destined  to  overspread  the  Indian  peninsula.  Though 
humiliated  and  defeated  in  two  wars  with  Great  Britain,  the 
Chinese  have  given  clear  evidence  that  they  will  fight  further 
for  their  rights  and  traditions.  England  has  always  declared 
that  all  she  wants  in  China  is  trade;  and  some  proof  indeed 
has  been  given  of  the  truth  of  this  assertion  in  her  declining 
to  take  more  ground  than  port  and  commercial  necessities 
required  when  she  might  as  easily  have  demanded  a  large 
extent  of  territory. 

The  East  India  company  appeared  upon  the  scene  in  1613, 
establishing  a  factory  in  Japan,  with  agencies  two  years  later 
in  Amoy  and  Formosa.  The  Portuguese  succeeded  in  de- 
feating an  attempt  made  by  England  in  1627  to  establish 
trade  with  Canton  through  Macao;  but  by  the  treaty  of  Crom- 


r«  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

well  with  Portugal  some  time  later,  participation  in  the  trade 
of  the  Far  East  was  secured.  With  the  fall  of  the  Ming 
dynasty  in  1664  the  Chinese  affected  a  contempt  for  for- 
eigners and  for  trade;  and  in  1681  the  factory  at  Amoy  was 
destroyed;  but  learning  that  the  Manchus  would  protect 
trade  provided  their  government  was  properly  recognized, 
British  vessels  were  sent  out  to  Macao,  the  Amoy  factory  was 
restored,  and  an  agency  established  on  the  island  of  Chusan. 
It  was  the  custom  at  this  time,  as  in  almost  all  oriental  and 
Latin  countries,  to  present  the  chief  in  authority,  in  this 
instance  an  officer  of  the  imperial  household,  as  well  as  of 
the  hoppo,  or  native  customs,  with  some  valuable  considera- 
tion, which  should  materially  lessen  the  amount  of  duties 
demanded. 

In  early  times  the  East  India  company's  chief  supercargo 
was  an  important  personage,  being  on  the  Chinese  coast  ex- 
officio  king's  consul  and  minister.  This  becoming  known,  an 
emperor-merchant  was  appointed  by  the  Manchu  government 
to  supervise  for  China  in  the  foreign  trade,  who  in  1720  was 
superseded  by  a  board  of  Chinese  merchants  called  cohong, 
responsible  to  the  governor  and  viceroy,  with  power  to  levy 
four  per  cent  duties  on  both  imports  and  exports.  Out  of 
these  offices  and  emoluments  evolved  intricate  commercial 
systems,  relics  of  which  remain  to  this  day. 

The  trader  was  held  in  contempt,  not  only  by  the  nobility 
but  by  the  literati;  they  might  house  themselves  for  short 
intervals  in  the  suburbs  of  Canton,  but  foreigners  could  not 
enter  the  city  gates  nor  penetrate  the  interior. 

Indeed,  extremes  meet  when  the  bluff  John  Bull  conies  in 
contact  with  the  obsequious  celestial, — instance  the  arrival 
of  Commodore  Anson  in  the  Centaur,  in  1741,  the  first  British 
man  of  war  in  Chinese  waters.  The  Chinese  officials  were 
astounded  at  the  audacity  of  this  stranger,  who  dared  so  un- 
ceremoniously not  only  to  enter  the  Bogue  and  pass  on  to 
Whampoa,  but  to  call  in  person  on  the  viceroy.  Another 
Englishman  who  in  this  quarter  attempted  high-handed  pro- 
ceedings was  Captain  Maxewell  of  the  Alcest,  who  in  1816, 
was  fired  on  from  the  forts;  he  returned  the  fire  and  con- 
tinued his  course  to  Whampoa.  Then  there  were  Lord 
Macartney  in  1792,  and  Lord  Amherst  in  1815,  who  had 
trouble  on  the  score  of  barbarian  etiquette. 


EUROPE   IN    ASIA  123 

Upon  the  approaching  extinction  of  the  East  India  com- 
pany, the  viceroy  of  Canton,  who  had  been  informed  of  the 
fact,  intimated  that  the  presence  of  a  British  officer  to  con- 
trol trade  would  be  acceptable  to  the  Chinese  authorities. 
Thereupon  in  1833  an  act  of  parliament,  passed  to  regulate 
trade  in  the  East,  declared  it  expedient  to  establish  British 
authority  in  China.  Three  superintendents  of  trade  were 
appointed,  Lord  Napier,  Mr  Plowden,  and  Mr  Davis,  one 
of  whom  was  to  act  as  judge,  with  criminal  and  admiralty 
jurisdiction  in  matters  pertaining  to  English  subjects.  Lord 
Palmerston's  instructions  were,  "  to  foster  and  protect  the 
trade  of  his  majesty's  subjects  in  China,  to  extend  trade  if 
possible  to  other  parts  of  China,  to  induce  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernment to  enter  into  commercial  relations  with  the  English 
government,  and  to  seek  with  peculiar  caution  and  circum- 
spection to  establish  eventually  direct  diplomatic  communica- 
tion with  the  imperial  court  at  Peking;  also  to  have  the  coast 
of  China  surveyed  to  prevent  disasters;  and  to  inquire  for 
places  where  British  ships  might  find  requisite  protection  in 
the  event  of  hostilities  in  the  China  sea." 

Lord  Napier's  mission  failed.  After  his  death  at  Macao, 
coercive  measures  were  recommended,  and  the  necessity  of 
an  island  in  the  vicinity,  which  could  be  occupied  by  the 
British  as  a  colony,  became  apparent;  and  in  1841  a  cession 
of  the  island  of  Hongkong  to  Great  Britain  was  made,  and 
ratified  by  the  treaty  of  Nanking  in  1842,  five  ports  being 
at  the  same  time  opened  to  British  trade,  Canton,  Amoy, 
Fuchau,  Nimpo,  and  Shanghai.  Hongkong  was  proclaimed 
a  free  port  in  1842,  and  the  following  year  was  constituted  a 
crown  colony. 

Although  sovereign  absolute  as  regards  his  people,  the  em- 
peror of  China  lies  under  a  crushing  weight  of  ponderous  ma- 
chinery and  traditional  form,  and  England  has  always  been 
somewhat  brutal  in  her  dealings  with  such  personages.  Eng- 
lishmen visiting  Macao  in  1635  opened  intercourse  by  amic- 
able trading,  and  closed  it  by  fighting,  as  has  long  been  their 
way.  Obtaining  a  foothold  at  Canton  in  1684,  for  over  a 
century  the  East  India  company  monopolized  the  foreign 
trade  of  China.  A  fruitful  source  of  trouble  between  foreign- 
ers and  the  Asiatics  and  islanders  has  been  the  turbulent  con- 
duct of  seamen,  who  were  too  apt  to  express  their  contempt 


124  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

in  words  and  blows  for  customs  and  opinions  which  differed 
from  their  own. 

The  Chinese  customs  service  as  managed  by  Sir  Robert 
Hart  evolved  from  the  rebellion  of  1853.  When  the  city  of 
Shanghai  was  taken  by  the  insurgents,  neither  they  nor  the 
Chinese  government  were  able  to  collect  customs  dues  from 
the  merchants,  who  refused  payment  to  the  former  because 
they  had  not  taken  the  forts,  and  to  the  latter  because  they 
had  lost  the  citadel.  The  government  threatened,  and  then 
invested  the  city.  The  merchants  offered  bonds  to  make 
payment  when  government  rule  should  be  reinstated,  which 
offer  was  accepted.  Meanwhile  each  of  the  nations  concerned 
appointed  a  collector,  and  together  an  inspector  general. 
The  system  worked  so  well  that  it  was  continued  after  peace 
was  restored,  and  was  extended  to  other  cities,  until  800 
Europeans  and  4,000  Chinese  passed  under  autocratic  rule 
as  customs  employes. 

See  the  absurdity  of  Europe's  position  before  Asia,  which 
is  about  where  England  was  in  the  early  part  of  the  century. 
Until  a  comparatively  late  date  China  had  never  held  herself 
aloof,  as  exclusive  or  isolate.  But  when,  while  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  prosperity  and  happiness,  strangers  came  with  teach- 
ings she  did  not  want,  naturally  she  closed  her  doors  to  them, 
just  as  the  United  States  closes  her  door  to  unwelcome  Chi- 
nese. "  Take  away  your  horrible  drug  and  your  religion.  If 
your  drug  is  good,  eat  it  yourselves;  if  your  religion  is  good, 
practise  it  yourselves,"  said  China.  "  Friend  ",  replied  Eng- 
land, "  this  medicine  you  must  take,  if  not  for  your  good, 
then  for  ours." 

The  story  is  well  told  by  C.  C.  Coffin  in  Our  New  way 
Round  the  World:  "  In  1773,  about  the  time  that  the  people 
of  Boston  were  throwing  British  tea  into  the  harbour,  the 
East  India  company  were  disposing  of  their  first  small  venture 
of  opium  at  this  port.  From  the  topmasts  of  their  vessels  the 
sailors  had  looked  out  upon  these  fertile  valleys,  and  beheld 
them  white  with  poppy  blooms,  from  which  opium  was  manu- 
factured for  the  wealthy  classes.'  A  chest  of  opium  in  the 
market  of  Canton  was  worth  $500;  but  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges  were  more  fertile  than  these  mountain  slopes,  the 
climate  more  genial,  and  a  chest  of  the  drug  could  be  pro- 
duced for  $100.  Here  was  a  chance  for  speculation.  No 


EUROPE    IN    ASIA  125 

other  product  of  India  would  yield  four  hundred  per  cent 
profit.  The  trade  rapidly  increased,  and  in  1800  amounted 
to  two  thousand  chests  per  annum.  Up  to  that  year  no  action 
had  been  taken  by  the  Chinese  government  against  its  in- 
troduction; but  the  withdrawal  of  coin  from  the  empire,  and 
the  demoralization  of  the  wealthy  classes  and  public  officials 
who  had  the  means  of  indulging  their  appetites,  induced  the 
emperor  to  prohibit  its  manufacture  and  sale.  Confiscation 
of  property  and  death  were  the  penalties,  not  only  for  those 
who  cultivated  and  sold,  but  for  those  who  smoked  the  drug. 
Notwithstanding  these  prohibitory  measures,  the  consump- 
tion still  increased.  Armed  English  vessels  were  stationed  in 
the  Canton  river,  which  supplied  smugglers  boats,  also  well 
armed  and  ready  for  battle  with  the  Chinese  war-junks.  Of- 
ficials were  bribed,  mandarins  conciliated,  the  imperial  laws 
set  at  defiance.  The  government  at  Peking  used  every  effort 
to  stop  the  sale,  while  the  East  India  company  employed  every 
means  to  stimulate  it.  The  Chinese  authorities,  when  fortu- 
nate enough  to  catch  smugglers  or  dealers,  strangled  them  in 
front  of  the  English  factories;  but  the  death  of  a  Chinaman 
now  and  then  did  not  deter  the  English  from  violating  the 
laws  of  a  weaker  nation,  and  the  illicit  sale  increased  from 
year  to  year,  till  in  1840  it  amounted  to  forty  thousand  chests 
per  annum. 

"  In  1839  the  Chinese  government  determined  to  break  up 
the  traffic  at  all  hazards.  Lin,  the  imperial  commissioner  at 
Canton,  pushed  matters  so  vigorously  that  the  trade  for  a 
time  nearly  ceased.  The  emperor  demanded  a  surrender  of 
all  opium  in  the  hands  of  the  English,  which  at  the  command 
of  Admiral  Eliot  was  given  up,  and  twenty  thousand  chests 
destroyed,  at  a  cost  of  six  million  dollars  to  the  imperial 
treasury.  The  English  merchants  who  had  dealt  in  the  article 
signed  an  obligation  not  to  reengage  in  the  traffic,  and  then 
immediately  violated  it.  The  trade  being  revived  the  Chi- 
nese officials  became  insolent,  over-bearing,  and  the  merchants 
were  subjected  to  humiliating  exactions,  exceedingly  galling 
to  high-spirited  Britons.  The  result  of  it  all  was  the  war  of 
1840,  waged  ostensibly  to  avenge  insult  to  the  British  flag, 
but  in  reality  to  force  opium  upon  a  government  laboring  to 
suppress  the  traffic.  It  was  an  easy  matter  for  the  British  fleet 
to  knock  down  the  Bogue  forts  at  the  entrance  to  the  Canton 


126  .       THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

river,  and  to  take  possession  of  Canton,  and  all  the  other 
maritime  cities.  Avarice,  supported  by  fleets  and  armies, 
accomplished  its  end.  So  Christian  England  dealt  with 
heathen  China! " 

Said  the  emperor  when  asked  to  license  the  sale  of  opium 
at  Hongkong,  "  It  is  true  I  cannot  prevent  the  introduction 
of  the  flowing  poison.  Gain-seeking  and  corrupt  men  will 
for  profit  and  sensuality  defeat  my  wishes;  but  nothing  will 
induce  me  to  derive  a  revenue  from  the  vice  and  misery  of  my 
people."  Englishmen  have  often  commented  on  this  infamy 
in  terms  by  no  means  complimentary  to  England.  Said  the 
British  treasurer  at  Hongkong,  Martin,  "  The  records  of 
wickedness  since  the  world  was  created  furnish  no  parallel  to 
the  wholesale  murders  which  the  British  nation  have  been, 
and  still  are,  hourly  committing  in  China.  What  has  been 
done  on  the  subject?  Have  we  simply  remained  passive,  and 
allowed  the  crimes  and  the  murders  caused  by  the  opium 
trade  to  go  on  silently,  unnoticed  and  unopposed  by  her 
majesty's  government?  We  cannot  even  allege  the  poor,  mis- 
erable plea  of  winking  as  a  government  against  a  crime  which 
it  is  pretended  could  not  be  checked.  On  the  contrary,  the 
representative  of  Queen  Victoria  has  recently  converted  the 
small  barren  rock  which  we  occupy  on  the  coast  of  China  into 
a  vast  opium-smoking  shop;  he  has  made  it  the  Gehenna  of  the 
waters,  where  iniquities  which  it  is  a  pollution  to  name  cannot 
only  be  perpetrated  with  impunity,  but  are  absolutely  licensed 
in  the  name  of  our  gracious  sovereign,  and  protected  by  the 
titled  representative  of  her  majesty!  Better,  far  better,  in- 
finitely better,  abjure  the  name  of  Christianity,  call  ourselves 
heathens,  idolaters  of  the  golden  calf,  worshippers  of  the  evil 
one.  Let  us  do  this,  and  we  have  then  a  principle  for  our 
guide,  the  acquisition  of  money  at  any  cost,  at  any  sacrifice. 
Why,  the  slave  trade  was  merciful  compared  to  the  opium 
trade.  We  did  not  destroy  the  bodies  of  the  Africans,  for  it 
was  our  immediate  interest  to  keep  them  alive;  we  did  not 
debase  their  natures,  corrupt  their  minds,  nor  destroy  their 
souls.  But  the  opium  seller  slays  the  body  after  he  has  cor- 
rupted, degraded,  and  annihilated  the  moral  being  of  un- 
happy sinners,  while  every  hour  is  bringing  new  victims  to  a 
Moloch  which  knows  no  satiety,  and  where  the  English  mur- 
derer and  the  Chinese  suicide  vie  with  each  other  in  offering 


EUROPE   IN   ASIA  127 

at  his  shrine!  No  excuse  can  be  offered  for  the  conduct  of 
England  in  forcing  opium  upon  the  Chinese.  It  will  ever 
stand  forth  in  history  as  the  high  handed  barbarian  act  of  a 
nation  which  puts  forth  the  highest  claims  to  Christian  civili- 
zation." 

Even  after  the  enforcement  of  the  drug  upon  China  by 
the  English,  the  opium  evil  might  have  been  exterminated 
had  the  mandarins  acted  together.  Some  of  the  governors 
did  indeed  prohibit  the  cultivation  of  the  poppy;  others  were 
indifferent.  This  is  China's  most  dangerous  weakness,  lack 
of  unity  in  purpose  and  action.  The  foreign  opium  is  now 
becoming  less  and  less,  while  native  production  is  rapidly  in- 
creasing. Japan  is  wise  indeed  in  prohibiting  it,  not  only  at 
home  but  in  Formosa.  Some  excuse  there  may  have  been  for 
the  opium  war,  attended  by  the  heat  of  passion  and  the  action 
of  unwise  agents,  but  there  was  no  excuse  for  a  continuance  of 
the  wrong,  other  than  the  loss  of  money  this  exercise  of  right 
and  morality  would  have  entailed.  As  great  a  loss  to  them- 
selves, the  loss  of  £1,700,000  per  annum  import  duties,  the 
half-civilized  unchristian  Chinese  would  gladly  have  suffered, 
but  even  the  pathetic  appeal  of  Prince  Kung  to  the  British 
minister  in  1869  had  no  effect.  "  That  opium  is  like  a 
deadly  poison; "  he  said,  "  that  it  is  most  injurious  to  man- 
kind and  a  most  serious  provocative  of  ill-feelings  between 
the  two  countries  is  perfectly  well  known  to  your  excellency. 
The  officials  and  people  of  this  empire  all  say  that  England 
trades  in  opium  because  she  desires  to  work  China's  ruin. 
For  if  the  friendly  feelings  of  England  were  genuine,  since 
it  is  open  to  her  to  produce  and  trade  in  everything  else,  would 
she  still  insist  on  spreading  the  poison  of  this  hurtful  thing 
through  this  empire?  " 

The  Taiping  rebellion,  coming  ten  years  after  the  treaty  of 
Nanking,  was  but  another  link  in  the  chain  of  events  which 
was  to  destroy  Tartar  prestige  and  give  Europe  the  ascendency 
over  the  Manchu  dynasty,  then  occupying  the  throne.  A 
native  convert  to  Christianity,  Hung  Sin  Chuen,  in  the  year 
1852,  gathering  about  him  kindred  spirits  in  the  mountains 
of  the  south,  proclaimed  himself  emperor,  and  took  up  his 
march  toward  the  sea  with  an  ever  increasing  following.  De- 
feating the  imperial  armies  on  the  way,  he  captured  Hankau, 
and  with  the  spoils  freighted  a  thousand  junks,  and  descended 


128  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

the  river  850  miles  to  Nanking,  choosing  the  southern  city 
as  his  capital  because  the  Ming  dynasty  had  been  there  estab- 
lished in  1388,  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Mongols  by  Hungwa. 
The  capture  of  Nanking  by  the  insurgents  was  followed  by 
the  butchery  of  the  entire  garrison  of  25,000  men.  Yangchau, 
Chinkiang,  and  other  opulent  cities  in  the  vicinity  fell  also 
after  brief  investment,  and  with  no  small  satisfaction  Hung 
Sin  Chuen  seated  himself  in  the  old  imperial  palace  as  a 
worthy  successor  of  the  Ming  emperors.  The  day  of  reckon- 
ing came,  however,  when  to  the  neglect  of  the  coast  provinces 
he  sent  his  armies  into  the  north,  leaving  open  the  door  for 
the  western  governments,  which  would  make  a  more  profit- 
able use  of  a  Taiping  rebellion  could  they  have  one  to-day. 
Upon  the  recovery  of  Nanking,  planned  by  General  Ward, 
and  carried  out  under  the  auspices  of  the  taotai  of  Shanghai, 
and  whose  efforts  were  continued  by  Colonel  Gordon,  a  mas- 
sacre occurred  similar  to  that  which  attended  the  capture. 

Thus  one  after  another  fell  the  blows  which  were  in  the 
end  to  demolish  the  medieval  wall  of  isolation.  And  another 
was  now  at  hand.  It  was  the  custom  for  Chinese  vessels,  for 
a  small  consideration,  to  obtain  permission  from  the  authori- 
ties at  Hongkong  to  fly  the  British  flag,  and  in  1856  the  lorcha 
Arrow,  sailing  under  these  auspices,  was  seized  by  the  Chinese 
government  and  the  crew  imprisoned  as  pirates.  A  protest 
was  made  by  the  British  consul,  whereupon  the  viceroy  sent 
the  prisoners  to  the  consulate,  but  the  consul  refused  to  re- 
ceive them,  arbitrarily  demanding  that  the  crew  be  restored 
to  the  deck  of  the  vessel.  Upon  the  return  of  the  prisoners 
to  the  now  infuriated  viceroy,  he  ordered  them  all  beheaded. 
Sir  John  Browning,  governor  of  Hongkong,  then  took  the 
matter  up.  War  ensued,  in  which  the  French  took  part,  offer- 
ing the  already  stale  excuse  of  murdered  missionaries,  her 
real  purpose  being  to  share  in  the  spoils.  The  emperor  left 
matters  to  take  their  course;  Canton  was  captured  the  follow- 
ing year,  and  the  viceroy  was  taken  to  Calcutta,  whence  he 
never  returned.  Meanwhile,  though  still  neutral,  Russia  and 
the  United  States  took  this  occasion  to  have  their  treaties 
revised. 

The  same  policy  of  exclusion  was  maintained  by  the  young 
emperor  on  his  accession  to  power  in  1850.  In  answer  to 
a  congratulatory  letter  from  Queen  Victoria  he  replied: 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  129 

"  Foreigners  are  under  obligations  to  be  grateful  for  our  gen- 
erosity; but  their  recent  proceedings  in  forwarding  despatches 
direct  to  ministers  of  state  can  be  looked  on  only  as  contu- 
macious and  insulting."  Hence  it  was  that  attempts  made 
in  1854  by  the  British  and  American  ministers  to  reach  Pe- 
king by  way  of  Taku  proved  unsuccessful,  and  a  letter  from 
President  Pierce  sent  from  Fuchau  was  returned  with  word 
that  to  receive  attention  it  must  come  through  Canton.  The 
opium  war,  the  Taiping  rebellion,  and  the  Arrow  war,  with 
their  attending  inroads  and  influences,  were  long  strides  into 
the  realms  of  isolation,  but  the  emperor  still  remained  invisi- 
ble to  ministers  accredited  to  him,  and  they  were  forced  to 
transact  their  business  with  a  provincial  governor. 

It  was  through  the  injudicious  conduct  of  English  repre- 
sentatives of  foreign  commerce  and  diplomacy,  that  the  ani- 
mosities were  stirred  up  in  1834  which  led  to  the  opium  war. 
The  emperor,  seeing  the  evil  effects  of  the  drug  upon  his 
people,  had  issued  an  edict  against  opium  as  early  as  1800, 
and  the  government  was  no  less  determined  now  to  put  it 
down.  But  India  made  opium,  and  England  must  see  it 
sold.  Hence  the  Chinese  were  told  to  choose  between  opium 
and  war.  And  war  it  was,  as  we  have  seen.  Nanking,  the 
ancient  capital  of  China,  should  be  seized  and  held  for  the 
settlement  of  the  difficulties. 

"  Why  can  you  not  deal  fairly  with  us?  "  the  Chinese  asked. 
"  Why  do  you  not  prohibit  the  growth  of  the  poppy  in  your 
dominions,  and  stop  a  traffic  so  pernicious  to  the  human 
race?  "  "  Ah!  "  said  the  sapient  Englishman,  "  our  laws  for- 
bid the  arbitrary  exercise  of  power  over  those  who  cultivate 
our  soil;  besides,  you  know,  if  we  didn't  furnish  you  with 
opium,  some  one  else  would  do  so." 

Seventy-two  steamers  and  transports  in  five  divisions,  with 
an  advance  squadron,  were  sent  up  the  river,  to  the  terror  of 
the  inhabitants.  After  some  fighting  a  treaty  was  made, 
which  was  ratified  in  1842,  the  Chinese  government  agreeing 
to  pay  England  six  million  dollars  for  opium,  twelve  million 
war  expenses,  and  three  million  debts, — this,  together  with 
the  cession  of  the  island  of  Hongkong,  and  the  opening  of  the 
five  ports  to  British  trade  residence  and  religion.  Two  years 
later  treaties  were  made  with  the  United  States  and  France,  in 
which  the  opium  question  was  not  discussed.  The  treaty  of 


130  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Nanking  created  a  sensation  among  the  more  commercial 
nations  of  the  world.  The  governments  of  the  United  States, 
Prussia,  Holland,  Belgium,  and  Spain  sent  out  agents  to  look 
after  their  interests,  and  secure  like  advantages.  The  island 
of  Hongkong  when  ceded  to  the  British  in  1841  was  the  resort 
of  native  fishermen  and  smugglers.  It  is  now  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  unique  of  oriental  cities,  with  stately  buildings, 
clean  streets,  and  usually  200  or  300  vessels  in  the  harbor. 
Besides  400,000  Chinese,  the  population,  displaying  every 
costume  and  color,  is  made  up  of  American  English  and 
French,  Portuguese  Indian  Malay  Arabian  and  Persian  mer- 
chants, many  of  them  intelligent  and  wealthy. 

It  was  not  the  intention  at  first  to  create  a  colony  at  Hong- 
kong, but  merely  to  hold  the  island  as  an  emporium  of  com- 
merce and  a  point  of  military  occupancy.  It  was  long  before 
its  value  was  appreciated  or  success  attained,  so  long  that  the 
advisability  of  its  abandonment  was  seriously  discussed.  It  is 
now  one  of  the  most  prosperous  places  in  the  world,  the  har- 
bor full  of  shipping,  fifty  ocean  steamers  at  anchor  there  at 
one  time,  besides  hundreds  of  sailing-vessels  and  sea-going 
junks;  and  on  shore  docks,  wharves,  and  granite  esplanade, 
public  buildings  and  private  dwellings,  stores  and  warehouses 
of  imposing  and  costly  proportions.  Its  17,000,000  tons  of 
shipping  entering  and  clearing  in  1897  makes  it  third  in  im- 
portance of  all  the  ports  in  the  British  empire. 

"  The  aggregate  burden  of  shipping  is  greater  than  that  of 
the  four  leading  Australian  colonies "  says  Colquhoun  of 
Hongkong,  while  des  Vceux  remarks  on  the  "  long  line  of 
quays  and  wharves,  large  warehouses  teeming  with  merchan- 
dise, shops  stocked  with  all  the  luxuries  as  well  as  the  needs  of 
two  civilizations;  in  the  European  quarter  a  fine  town  hall, 
stately  banks,  and  other  large  buildings  of  stone;  in  the 
Chinese  quarters,  houses  constructed  after  a  pattern  peculiar 
to  China,  of  almost  equally  solid  materials,  but  packed  so 
closely  together  and  thronged  so  densely  as  to  be,  in  this 
respect,  probably  without  a  parallel  in  the  world, — 100,000 
people  live  within  a  certain  district  not  exceeding  half  a 
square  mile  in  area, — and  finally  streets  stretching  for  miles, 
abounding  with  carriages,  drawn  for  the  most  part  not  by 
animals  but  by  men,  and  teeming  with  busy  population,  in 
the  centre  of  the  town  chiefly  European,  but  towards  the  west 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  131 

and  east  almost  exclusively  Chinese."  A  lease  for  ninety- 
nine  years  of  the  islands  and  mainland  opposite  Victoria,  em- 
bracing 200  square  miles,  was  granted  to  Great  Britain  in 
1898,  thus  giving  the  islanders  room  for  further  development. 

Opium-testing  has  become  a  profession.  From  each  chest 
offered  for  sale  a  small  piece  is  selected  and  put  into  a  thin 
shallow  brass  pan  containing  a  little  clear  water,  and  the  pan 
placed  over  a  charcoal  brazier.  When  thoroughly  dissolved 
it  is  strained  through  paper  filters,  resting  on  wicker  baskets, 
into  porcelain  cups.  If  the  solution  passes  quickly  through 
the  paper  the  opium  is  good;  if  slowly,  and  leaving  a  sedi- 
ment, it  is  of  inferior  quality.  Best  of  all  is  that  which,  boiled 
to  the  consistency  of  molasses,  shows  red  on  being  removed 
from  the  fire,  and  lifted  to  the  light  on  a  small  stick. 

Hear  an  English  admiral  in  China  discourse  on  the  drug 
forced  on  China  by  an  English  admiral  a  few  years  previous. 
"  It  is  strange  what  a  fascination  is  attached  to  the  smoking 
of  opium.  To  obtain  the  means  of  gratifying  his  taste  for 
this  enervating  and  demoralizing  habit,  the  Chinaman  would 
pawn  his  shoes,  coat,  hat,  or  anything  he  possessed.  In  some 
of  the  back  streets  of  Shanghai  there  are  a  number  of  opium 
shops.  Passing  through  a  narrow  street,  and  being  attracted 
by  the  smell  of  burning  opium,  I  was  induced  to  enter  one 
of  these  veritable  hells.  The  room  was  dark  and  dismal,  and 
the  occupants  one  might  say  were  in  the  lowest  state  of  degra- 
dation. Along  the  wall  on  one  side  of  the  room,  some  covered 
sofas  were  placed;  a  small  table  with  lamps  stood  before  each, 
affording  sufficient  light  to  expose  the  squalid  faces  and  per- 
sons of  the  smokers.  They  were  in  different  stages  of  intoxi- 
cation; some  slightly  exhilarated,  others  talkative,  their  eyes 
wild  and  bright  and  their  faces  red;  others  becoming  drowsy, 
their  limbs  relaxing  into  an  easy  posture  for  sleep.  One,  com- 
pletely overcome,  lay  prostrate  and  asleep;  near  him  were  his 
opium  pipe  and  low-crowned  hat  with  broad  brim. 

"  A  well  dressed  Chinaman  entered,  and  depositing  the 
necessary  sum,  took  his  place  on  a  lounge;  having  obtained 
the  pipe  and  opium,  he  commenced  operations  by  taking  a  long 
needle  and  stirring  the  point  of  it  in  the  small  opium  box, 
whence  he  drew  forth  a  piece  the  size  of  a  small  bead,  which 
he  placed  over  a  minute  hole  on  the  head  of  his  pipe.  The 
lamp  was  now  brought  into  requisition;  holding  the  head  of 


132  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

the  pipe  to  the  flame,  he  inhaled  the  smoke  from  the  bamboo 
stem.  He  evidently  relished  the  luxury,  as  he  again  and  again 
replenished  the  pipe.  Now  he  appears  pleased  with  himself 
and  all  the  world;  a  few  whiffs  more  and  his  eyes  grow  bright, 
his  face  is  jolly,  red,  and  laughing;  still  more,  and  the  pipe  be- 
comes too  heavy  for  his  hand,  and  his  head  for  his  shoulders; 
he  becomes  forgetful  of  the  world  and  of  its  cares,  and  sleeps, 
to  dream  of  elysian  fields,  paradise,  or  Soochow." 

There  are  those  who  predict  that  within  one  or  two  genera- 
tions there  will  be  but  four  great  powers  in  the  world,  Great 
Britain,  the  United  States,  Russia,  and  Germany;  that  as  Rome 
died  so  will  die  all  Latin  peoples,  Spain  being  already  prac- 
tically defunct,  Italy  a  third-rate  power,  and  France  fast  fol- 
lowing their  footsteps. 

While  England  has  Hongkong  and  Singapore,  while  France 
has  Saigon,  and  Germany  Kiaochau,  and  Russia  Port  Arthur, 
it  was  necessary  that  the  United  States  should  have  some  large 
commercial  metropolis  in  Asia  before  we  could  be  upon  an 
industrial  equality  with  other  nations  in  the  Far  East. 

Though  the  United  States  has  never  manifested  any  dispo- 
sition to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Asia,  nor  to  acquire  terri- 
tory there,  her  influence  in  the  Far  East  has  not  been  far  be- 
hind that  of  others,  and  it  has  always  been  for  good.  To 
disillusion  Japan,  and  place  upon  their  feet  among  civilized 
nations  a  barbarous  people,  without  war  and  within  so  short 
a  time,  was  an  achievement  such  as  the  world  had  never  before 
witnessed.  And  in  the  interests  of  peace  and  political  well- 
being,  America  has  always  been  a  true  friend  to  China  as  well 
as  to  Japan,  many  times  through  her  ministers  exercising  dis- 
interested and  beneficial  influence  in  her  affairs.  Nor  is  the 
obligation  all  one  way.  America  owes  something  to  Asia.  In 
the  upbuilding  of  United  States  commerce,  and  the  rise  of 
opulent  cities  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  China  played  her  part. 
In  the  achievement  of  our  first  continental  railway  the  influ- 
ence of  this  commerce  was  felt,  and  the  aid  of  Chinese  laborers 
was  not  scorned.  So  with  regard  to  the  wonderful  unfolding 
of  the  New  Pacific  which  now  is  and  is  to  come,  all  the  nations 
contribute,  to  the  better  glory  and  prosperity  of  all. 

Nine  years  ago  Spain  offered  to  sell  the  Ladrones  to  Japan, 
and  viscounts  Enomoto  and  Aoki  favored  the  purchase.  But 
the  project  being  opposed  by  Count  Inouye,  the  offer  was  de- 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  133 

clined.  Now  Japan  would  like  to  buy,  and  would  pay  for  the 
islands  a  good  round  sum,  not  for  the  construction  of  a  naval 
port,  nor  for  the  acquisition  of  prestige  and  power  in  the  south 
Pacific,  but  for  the  extension  of  her  fisheries.  So  she  says. 

When  the  war  with  Spain  was  ended,  the  powers  requested 
the  United  States  government  to  define  its  policy  in  regard 
to  China.  If  the  empire  was  to  be  dismembered,  let  all  share 
in  the  booty  and  then  none  could  complain.  Europe's  first 
recognition  of  the  United  States  as  one  of  the  world's  powers 
was  when  Italy  asked  what  would  be  America's  attitude  in 
regard  to  the  seizure  of  San  Mun  bay,  and  was  told  that  the 
attitude  of  the  United  States  would  be  one  of  indifference  and 
non-intervention.  All  the  powers,  particularly  England,  would 
like  to  have  the  United  States  join  them  in  the  partition  of 
China;  but  aside  from  the  ethical  aspect  of  the  question,  Amer- 
ica has  all  she  wants  of  Asia  at  present  in  the  Philippine 
problem. 

The  motives  and  purposes  of  the  several  powers  are  quite 
different.  Thus  Russia  desires  territory,  absolute  ownership; 
not  being  content  with  half  the  world  she  would  now  like  the 
other  half.  With  the  machinery  of  her  despotic  government 
in  good  running  order,  she  would  not  feel  the  burden  of  re- 
sponsibility like  England,  with  her  more  liberal  policy.  Eng- 
land wants  customers  for  her  manufactured  articles,  rather  than 
more  Asiatics  to  govern,  but  she  stands  ready  to  govern  any 
thing  for  its  trade,  if  it  has  any.  England  prefers  the  integrity 
of  China  with  open  door  trade. 

A  coolness  between  England  and  Russia  arose  over  the  New 
Chwang  railway  loan  by  England  to  secure  the  £2,500,000  Jap- 
anese indemnity  loan,  the  Russians  claiming  that  the  Chinese 
foreign  office  was  not  to  give  any  othe"r  power  the  control  of 
any  railway  in  Manchuria,  and  that  if  a  loan  was  required 
theirs  was  a  prior  right.  "  To  understand  the  present  situa- 
tion", writes  Colquhoun  in  his  China  in  Transformation,  "the 
natural  sequel  to  1895,  it  is  first  of  all  necessary  to  recognize 
the  fact  that  Russia  is  actually  the  protector  of  China  against 
all  comers,  and  that  France  supports  her  solidly,  while  Ger- 
many, having  taken  the  decisive  step  of  placing  herself  along- 
side Russia,  is  likely  to  follow  the  Russian  lead,  for  two  suffi- 
cient reasons, — for  fear  of  displeasing  Russia,  the  ally  of 
France,  and  because  concessions  are  not  likely  to  be  got  in 


134  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

China  by  Germany  in  direct  and  open  opposition  to  Russia. 
Eussian  influence  has  for  some  time  been  all-powerful  at  Pe- 
king, mainly  through  the  timely  assistance  rendered  to  China 
in  1895,  followed  up  by  a  persistent  policy,  cemented  by  an 
understanding,  offensive  and  defensive.  The  fundamental  fact 
of  a  close  understanding  between  Russia  and  China  has  for 
some  time  been  patent  to  all  the  world  except  ourselves,  the 
chief  features  being,  (1)  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive, 
(2)  branch  railways  through  Manchuria,  (3)  the  refortification 
of  Port  Arthur  and  Talienwan,  and  the  fortification  of  Kiao- 
chau,  all  to  be  paid  for  by  China,  any  or  all  of  the  three 
war  harbors  to  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Russia  whenever 
desired/' 

England's  dependencies  in  Asia  comprise,  besides  the  Indian 
peninsula  and  the  adjacent  islands,  the  Straits  settlements 
and  islands,  the  Malay  peninsula  and  island,  Hongkong  and 
the  Keeling  islands.  The  Maldive  islands  are  nominally  con- 
nected with  Ceylon,  and  the  islands  of  Singapore  and  Penang 
with  the  Straits  settlements,  while  Burmah  is  the  southern 
entrance  to  China.  All  these  possessions  are  peninsulas  and 
islands,  and  most  of  them  in  the  tropics;  for  unlike  Russia, 
England  has  not  gained  large  accessions  of  inland  territory, 
her  object  being  trade  and  strategic  stations  rather  than 
colonization.  Thus  Aden,  on  the  way  to  India,  serves  com- 
mercially Arabia;  at  Singapore  unites  the  commerce  of  the 
Malay  peninsula,  Australia,  and  India;  the  military-com- 
mercial station  of  Hongkong  guards  the  British  interest  of 
northern  and  western  China.  The  Englishman  in  Asia  is 
merchant  and  dominator,  not  a  settler. 

England  can  enter  China  through  India  as  well  as  by  the 
eastern  ports.  The  British  gateway  to  China  is  Burmah.  A 
railway  from  Burmah  to  the  navigable  waters  of  the  upper 
Irrawaddy  and  Yangtse  will  place  western  and  southern  China 
and  the  vast  interior  under  British  control.  The  British  pos- 
sessions adjoin  the  Chinese  empire  on  the  southwest,  as  the 
Russian  possessions  adjoin  on  the  north.  Here  then  are  the 
two  great  dominating  powers  in  China,'  Russia  on  the  north 
and  Great  Britain  in  the  central  and  southern  parts.  The 
railway  from  Mandalay,  in  upper  Burmah  to  Kunlon  ferry, 
on  the  Salween  river,  is  a  move  in  this  direction.  The  route 
from  Bhamo,  as  the  commercial  highway  from  Burmah  to  . 


EUEOPE  IN  ASIA  135 

western  and  central  China,  was  long  held  by  the  Indian  gov- 
ernment in  high  esteem. 

Following  the  acquisition  of  California  by  the  United 
States,  public  attention  was  drawn  to  the  new  field  for  enter- 
prise thus  offered  by  the  enlargement  of  our  domain  on  the 
Pacific  and  closer  relations  with  the  opposite  shores  of  Asia, 
and  in  1852  M.  C.  Perry  was  sent  with  a  government  squad- 
ron on  a  mission  of  investigation  to  that  quarter.  Several 
scientists  accompanied  the  expedition,  elaborate  reports  were 
made,  and  important  results  ensued.  Eastern  Asia  was 
reached  by  way  of  the  cape  of  Good  Hope.  A  letter  from 
Millard  Fillmore,  president  of  the  United  States,  to  the  em- 
peror of  Japan  was  brought  by  Commodore  Perry,  in  which 
friendly  relations  between  the  two  countries  were  advised, 
the  opening  of  commercial  intercourse  suggested,  and  the 
proper  treatment  of  our  shipwrecked  seamen  demanded.  Ar- 
rived at  Uraga,  Perry  was  informed  that  this  letter  must  be 
delivered  at  Nagasaki.  This  the  commodore  refused  to  do, 
and  the  Japanese  authorities  waived  custom  and  received  the 
president's  letter.  And  in  so  doing  they  were  wiser  than  they 
knew.  A  treaty  between  the  tycoon  and  the  United  States 
was  signed  opening  two  ports  to  trade.  Not  long  afterward 
several  of  the  European  powers  sent  thither  representatives  to 
secure  whatever  of  good  might  fall  in  their  way,,  among 
others  the  French  admiral  in  the  frigate  Jean  d'Arc,  the  Rus- 
sian admiral  Poutatine,  and  the  English  admiral  Sir  James 
Stirling. 

Korea  preserved  her  isolation  until  1876,  when  a  treaty 
was  forced  on  her  by  Japan,  followed  by  trade  and  frontier 
regulations  by  China  in  1882.  Treaties  were  negotiated  by 
the  United  States  in  1882,  by  Great  Britain  and  Germany  in 
1884,  by  Russia  and  Italy  in  188G,  and  by  Austria  in  1892. 
By  these  conventions  the  ports  of  Chemulpo,  Fusan,  and  Won- 
san  together  with  Seoul  the  capital,  and  later  Mokpo  and 
Chinnampo,  were  opened  to  foreign  intercourse  and  com- 
merce, and  diplomatic  representatives  of  the  several  powers 
took  up  their  residence  at  the  capital.  In  1895  the  inde- 
pendence of  Korea  was  recognized  by  China,  whose  long-held 
suzerainty  was  formally  renounced.  So  long  dependent  on 
China  for  language,  religion,  and  guardianship,  the  peninsula 
became  little  more  than  an  imitation  of  her  neighbor,  who 


136  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

gave  her  first  Buddhism  and  then  Confucianism,  and  even 
since  her  independence  Korean  sympathies  are  still  with 
China.  "  It  is  into  this  archaic  condition  of  things  "  says  a 
late  visitor,  "  this  unspeakable  grooviness,  this  irredeemable, 
unreformed  orientalism,  this  parody  of  China  without  the 
robustness  of  race  which  helps  to  hold  China  together,  that 
the  ferment  of  western  leaven  has  fallen,  and  this  feeblest  of 
independent  kingdoms,  rudely  shaken  out  of  her  sleep  of  cen- 
turies, half  frightened  and  wholly  dazed,  finds  herself  con- 
fronted with  an  array  of  powerful,  ambitious,  aggressive,  and 
not  always  overscrupulous  powers,  bent  it  may  be  on  over- 
reaching her  and  each  other,  forcing  her  into  new  paths,  ring- 
ing with  rude  hands  the  knell  of  time-honored  customs,  clam- 
oring for  concessions,  and  bewildering  her  with  reforms, 
suggestions,  and  panaceas  of  which  she  sees  neither  the  mean- 
ing nor  the  necessity." 

The  Russians  were  early  in  China,  two  cossacks  appearing 
at  Peking  in  1567.  Russian  incursions  were  made  in  1643, 
while  the  Manchus  were  acquiring  dominion  over  the  Chinese. 
An  envoy  sent  by  the  tsar  Alexis  in  1653  was  denied  access 
to  the  court  because  he  refused  obeisance.  Toward  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century  the  Manchu-Chinese  army  repelled  a 
Russian  invasion,  and  so  disputes  arose  and  continued  re- 
garding settlement  on  either  bank  of  the  Amur.  Then  came 
the  treaty  of  Nerchinsk,  in  1689,  which  established  a  boun- 
dary line  between  China  and  Siberia,  giving  China  the  valley 
of  the  lower  Amur,  later  to  fall  to  Russia.  Commercial  rela- 
tions were  established  between  the  Amur  valley  and  Peking 
in  1567,  and  in  1689  the  first  Chinese  treaty  was  signed,  and 
for  the  past  several  centuries  the  relations  between  the  two 
countries  have  been  for  the  most  part  friendly.  Yet  Russia 
will  never  permit  China  to  pass  out  entirely  from  her  in- 
fluence and  control,  particularly  in  the  valley  of  the  Yellow 
river,  and  ports  on  the  Yellow  sea,  which  she  may  feel  her- 
self called  upon  to  occupy  at  any  time. 

Before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Russians 
were  in  Kamchatka,  Vladimir  founding  Nizhne-Kamchatsk 
in  1696.  Thence  rapid  progress  was  made  southward.  Yet 
it  is  not  long  since  China  extended  north  to  the  Yablonoi 
mountains  and  the  sea  of  Okhotsk,  the  Amur  province  falling 
into  the  hands  of  Russia  in  1858  and  the  coast  province  in 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  137 

1860.  With  her  war  ports  of  Vladivostok,  Port  Arthur,  and 
Talienwan,  Russia  still  further  dominates  the  northeast  Pa- 
cific. 

Russia  was  once  a  part  of  the  Mongolian  empire,  which 
extended  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Pacific,  and  from  the  Indian 
to  the  Arctic  ocean,  and  from  whose  ruins  she  is  now  rising. 
Thus  for  the  maintenance  of  her  preeminence  in  China  she 
has  geographical  position  and  race  affinity.  Russia's  water 
frontage  on  the  Pacific  will  prove  more  and  more  valuable  to 
her  as  the  centuries  go  by,  and  besides  influencing  her  destinies 
in  the  east,  will  in  some  degree  make  good  the  narrowness  of 
outlet  in  the  west.  She  has  the  advantage  over  the  other 
powers  of  Europe  in  several  ways.  First,  the  whole  northern 
line  of  provinces  lies  contiguous  to  her  own  territory.  Second, 
with  the  sarnie  facilities  of  approach  from  the  sea  that  the 
others  possess,  Russia  has  an  all  rail  overland  line  straight 
across  Asia  and  down  to  China,  all  of  her  ownership  and  on 
her  own  soil. 

Foreign  immigration  to  southeastern  Siberia  is  not  en- 
couraged, but  Russians  are  liberally  dealt  with  by  the  Rus- 
sians. Families  without  means  receive  free  passage,  and  to 
all  families  are  given  on  arrival  200  to  300  acres  of  good  land, 
and  a  loan  of  600  roubles  for  32  years  without  interest,  while 
agricultural  implements  are  furnished  by  the  government  at 
cost,  and  the  men  exempted  from  military  service.  Truly  the 
little  father  is  becoming  a  great  benefactor,  and  it  is  really  a 
pity  that  he  cannot  abolish  war,  and  save  himself  and  others 
the  half  of  their  money  which  now  goes  to  support  the  study 
and  practice  of  killing  men,  of  killing  many  hired  men 
quickly.  The  transsiberian  railway  brings  London  within 
6,000  miles  and  sixteen  days  of  the  Far  East. 

Russia  and  England  have  lately  come  to  an  understanding 
by  which  England  concedes  Russia's  supremacy  in  Manchuria, 
all  northwest  of  the  old  wall,  including  the  Liao-tung  penin- 
sula, while  in  return  Russia  concedes  England's  authority  in 
the  Yangtse  basin,  the  heart  of  China,  with  a  population  of 
150,000,000,  and  limitless  resources.  While  sphere  of  influ- 
ence is  differentiated  from  ownership,  this  is  practically  parti- 
tioning the  empire,  as  at  the  same  time  France  and  Germany 
come  in  each  for  a  small  slice.  Questions  will  all  the  time 
arise  which  the  new  powers  will  decide,  which  is  equiva- 


138  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

lent  to  a  protectorate,  which  is  the  next  thing  to  annex- 
ation. 

Naturally,  should  a  partition  of  China  among  the  powers 
of  Europe  occur,  Russia  would  prefer  territory  contiguous  to 
her  own;  France  would  like  to  make  larger  what  she  has  in 
the  south;  England,  perhaps,  might  not  object  to  the  Yangtse 
valley;  while  Germany  would  take  the  remainder,  that  is  to 
say  the  provinces  of  Fukien  and  Chekiang.  It  is  a  pity  thai 
these  great  nations,  the  high  and  mighty  of  morality  and 
righteousness,  champions  of  Christianity  and  civilization, 
should  have  always  to  hunt  about  them  for  some  low  and 
lying  pretext,  some  mean  and  paltry  excuse  for  war,  instead 
of  the  open  and  chivalrous  ways  of  old  in  which  men  rode 
forth  to  the  plundering  of  their  neighbor. 

As  Russia  dominates  Japan,  naturally  she  dominates  what- 
ever Japan  dominates.  Owing  to  the  protest  of  the  Russian 
minister,  the  Korean  government  felt  obliged  to  cancel  the 
.engagement  of  thirty  foreigners  who  arrived  at  Seoul  in  Sep- 
tember to  serve  in  the  imperial  body  guard.  This  great  polar 
power,  with  her  advanced  peace  proclivities,  continues  active 
operations  in  organizing  into  a  cavalry  army  some  half  mill- 
ion of  the  Turcoman  horsemen  of  Asiatic  Russia,  which  may 
prove  serviceable  in  the  Far  East.  Russia's  135,000,000  have 
a  square  mile  of  territory  for  every  25  inhabitants.  The  sexes 
are  nearly  equal  in  number,  but  the  quality  of  the  people  is 
low,  and  physical  conditions  to  some  extent  unfavorable  for 
the  fullest  moral  and  intellectual  development.  While  the 
Asiatic  dependencies  of  Russia  contain  6,575,000  square  miles 
with  a  population  of  23,000,000,  England's  area  in  Asia  of 
1,617,000  square  miles  has  a  population  of  292,000,000.  And 
in  the  extension  of  her  dominions,  a  purpose  she  pursues  with 
quiet  though  relentless  intent,  Russia  prefers  diplomacy,  but 
will  accept  war  if  necessary. 

In  his  journey  from  St  Petersburg  through  Siberia,  and 
voyage  down  the  Amur,  in  1857,  Perry  Collins  speaks  of  the 
gold  and  silver  mines  of  Nerchinsk,  Zarentunskie,  and  the 
Onon,  where  were  flourishing  towns  with  shops  well  filled  with 
merchandise  from  China  and  Europe.  The  people  of  the 
Amur  were  mostly  Mongols  and  Tartars,  and  on  the  river  were 
many  Chinese  junks.  At  Nikolaivski,  a  short  distance  above 
where  the  Amur  enters  the  strait  of  Tartary,  at  a  dinner  party 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  139 

in  the  house  of  the  Russian  governor,  although  Collins  was  the 
only  foreigner  present,  eight  of  those  at  table  spoke  English 
with  fluency.  There  were  indeed  in  the  town  several  Ameri- 
can merchants,  all  of  whom  carried  on  a  profitable  business. 
Their  storehouses  were  of  varied  material  and  construction; 
one  a  log  house  with  iron  roof,  one  a  frame  house  brought  by 
a  San  Francisco  firm  from  the  Hawaiian  islands,  and  other  log 
houses  with  zinc  or  shingle  roofs.  The  Russian-American 
company  also  had  an  agency  there,  dealing  in  Russian  mer- 
chandise and  controlling  the  fur  trade. 

From  Nikolaivski,  at  the  mouth  of  Amur  river,  to  de  Cas- 
tries is  about  100  miles,  and  yet  Collins  was  nineteen  days  in 
making  the  voyage,  on  account  of  calms  and  adverse  winds. 
There  is  drift  ice  here  in  winter,  and  the  bay  freezes.  The 
coasts  of  both  Tartary  and  Sakhahlin  are  rugged  and  moun- 
tainous. In  the  vicinity  are  good  mines  of  coal,  the  quality 
of  which  has  been  tested  by  the  China  steamers,  the  America 
then  using  it.  A  week  more,  after  touching  at  Emperoi  har- 
bor, brings  him  to  the  beautiful  city  of  Matsmai,  Japan,  front- 
ing the  strait  on  the  slope  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea, 
and  the  residence  of  a  prince.  Coasting  and  passing  many 
junks,  he  comes  to  Hakodadi.  We  are  told  that  the  Japanese 
are  a  polite  nation;  coast  officials  however  present  quite  a 
business  front. 

"What  you  want  here?"  is  the  first  question.  "Trade, 
provisions,  and  water,"  is  the  reply.  "  What  have  you  to 
trade,  what  provisions  do  you  want?"  "We  have  silver, 
lumber,  and  furs.  We  want  rice,  tobacco,  fruit,  vegetables, 
lacquered-ware,  and  silks."  "How  muchee  lice?"  "One 
thousand  piculs,  say  sixty  tons."  "No,  no  have  so  much." 
"  Give  us  what  you  can."  "  God  is  great." 

The  conversation  is  carried  on  in  English  by  means  of  an 
interpreter.  The  Japanese,  like  the  Chinese,  stumble  at  the 
letter  r,  turning  it  into  I,  not  always  to  the  improvement  of 
the  conversation.  Unfortunately  for  him,  the  name  of  the 
United  States  commercial  agent  at  this  port  was  at  this  time 
Doctor  Rice. 

The  town  was  full  of  little  shops,  mercantile  and  manu- 
facturing, and  exported  fish,  furs,  lumber,  sea-cabbage,  be- 
sides other  produce  of  sea  and  land,  and  the  manufactures  of 
the  country. 


140  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

While  the  Paris  commissioners  were  deliberating,  it  be- 
came evident  that  owing  to  Russian  intrigue  a  reaction  toward 
extreme  anti-foreign  conservatism  had  taken  place  in  the 
government  at  Peking,  though  the  immediate  designs  of  the 
tsar  in  Asia  did  not  appear.  At  the  same  time,  the  inference 
drawn  from  a  significant  change  in  the  attitude  of  Lord 
Salisbury,  and  the  large  quantity  of  British  war  stores  sent- 
to  Hongkong,  seemed  to  indicate  a  better  understanding  be- 
tween Great  Britain,  Germany,  the  United  States,  and  Japan, 
if  not  indeed  a  British  counter  move  to  offset  Russia's  ad- 
vantage; though  it  was  difficult  to  see  how  a  fresh  coup  d'etat 
could  be  effected  without  producing  anarchy,  which  would 
compel  the  powers  to  seize  and  divide  the  country  among 
themselves.  To  this  partition,  it  was  said,  England  seemed 
more  and  more  inclined,  as  sooner  or  later  it  was  deemed 
inevitable. 

If  in  China  we  see  the  largest  aggregation  of  men  under 
one  government  since  the  world  began,  in  Russia  there  are 
the  largest  number  of  white  men  ever  ruled  as  one  nation. 
There  are  more  English-speakers  than  Russian-speakers  in 
the  world,  and  although  all  Anglo-Saxons  are  nearer  akin 
than  the  various  tribes  of  Russia  and  China,  they  are  not 
politically  bound  together  as  one  nation. 

If  there  is  a  new  epoch  of  industrial  development  opening 
for  the  Anglo-Saxon,  there  is  none  the  less  prosperity  in  store 
for  the  Slav.  The  tsar  and  his  advisers  see  this,  and  specially 
desire  that  Russia  may  develop  her  material  resources  with 
the  development  of  the  moral  and  intellectual,  and  so  all 
parts  grow  into  strength  together.  Then  Russia  will  domi- 
nate the  world,  unless  at  the  same  time  the  Anglo-Saxon 
peoples  unite  under  some  kind  of  compact  such  as  will  give 
them  strength  as  the  strength  of  one  nation,  and  enable  them 
to  grow  in  power  and  wisdom  even  as  the  Russians  grow. 

At  present,  few  of  the  120,000,000  ruled  by  the  tsar  know 
little  and  care  less  of  what  is  or  happens  beyond  the  limits  of 
their  horizon.  But  this  will  change.  Americans  for  the  most 
part  are  well  received  in  Russia,  and  they  will  be  brought 
more  and  more  to  the  front,  particularly  in  Siberian  enter- 
prise, and  such  as  will  most  vitally  affect  the  countries  bor- 
dering on  the  Pacific,  that  is  to  say  the  agricultural  prairies 
and  mineral  mountains  through  which  runs  the  eastern  part 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  141 

of  the  8,000  miles  of  railway  which  the  tsar  and  Prince  Khilkof 
are  now  constructing. 

American  engineers  are  to-day  everywhere  in  Russia;  one 
is  constructing  steel  works  near  St  Petersburg,  another  dredg- 
ing the  Volga,  Don,  and  Dnieper,  another  laying  200  miles 
of  8-inch  pipe  for  the  Rothschilds'  oil  concession,  while  sev- 
eral are  engaged  in  the  gold  mines  of  northern  Siberia  and 
the  copper  mines  in  the  Khirgi  steppes. 

The  Russian  laborer,  like  the  Chinese,  is  a  purely  mechan- 
ical man;  he  is  docile  and  quick  enough  to  learn,  even  where 
no  small  skill  is  required,  but  he  has  not  the  faculty  of  im- 
agination or  invention;  he  does  as  he  is  told  but  never  makes 
a  suggestion.  He  has  yet  to  emerge  from  the  patriarchal 
despotism  which  so  benumbs  his  faculties,  and  breathe  the 
electric  atmosphere  of  modern  progress.  A  few  thousand 
bright  Americans  scattered  through  western  Russia  would 
soon  find  channels  for  the  inflowing  of  this  vitalized  air  from 
the  Pacific. 

Germany,  like  France,  is  greatly  concerned  because  of  her 
restricted  room  for  colonies.  The  theory  is  becoming  current 
in  Europe  that  no  European  nation  can  long  endure  without 
colonial  expansion,  that  is  without  room  for  national  growth 
beyond  the  present  narrow  limits.  What  a  breeding-ground 
has  Russia!  Equal  to  half  the  world,  almost,  leaving  out  the 
Americas.  To  obtain  a  piece  of  China,  Germany  feels  she 
must  cultivate  the  friendship  of  Russia,  and  not  too  greatly 
offend  England.  Prior  to  the  occupation  of  Kiaochau,  Ger- 
many had  no  interests  in  the  Far  East,  though  there  had  been 
a  Prussian  expedition  in  1861  by  Count  von  Eulenberg,  and 
later  an  attempt  was  made  by  German  traders  to  induce  their 
government  by  some  means  to  get  possession  of  a  piece  of 
China  or  Korea.  Germany  like  England  covets  the  trade  of 
the  Far  East,  while  Russia  and  France  desire  lands  and 
domination.  Thus  Russia  and  Germany  can  fraternize,  their 
aims  being  not  precisely  the  same,  and  France  and  Russia  can 
maintain  friendly  relations,  because  France  is  not  strong 
enough  to  fight. 

When  Germany  assumed  control  of  Kiaochau  and  Russia 
of  Port  Arthur  and  Talienwan,  many  thought  the  partition  of 
China  had  begun.  Others  said,  there  will  be  no  partition  of 
China,  or  if  there  is,  it  will  be  the  worse  for  the  Caucasian 


143  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

race.  The  Chinese  are  great  imitators.  Though  superfi- 
cially mild,  they  are  fierce  fighters  when  roused  and  well  offi- 
cered. Let  European  colonies  occupy  the  coast  of  China,  and 
European  civilization  will  permeate  the  interior,  and  the 
weapons  thus  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  these  millions  of 
Mongolians  to  retaliate,  and  not  only  sweep  clear  their  sea- 
board, but  invade  Europe  and  America  as  well. 

The  young  emperor  has  declared  Germany  a  world-power, 
which  implies  further  possessions  under  home  rule.  These 
can  only  be  found  in  South  America,  in  Holland,  or  in  Asia. 
The  attempts  at  colonization  in  Africa  and  the  south  Pacific 
have  failed;  German  emigrants  prefer  the  United  States. 
Germany  wants  land  to  colonize,  where  the  colonists  will  ever 
remain  German;  but  alas!  the  world  is  small.  The  attitude 
of  Germany  in  the  Far  East,  and  her  acquisitions  in  China, 
indicate  as  I  have  said  a  desire  to  influence  if  not  to  control 
trade  in  that  quarter.  Under  the  customs  service  of  Sir  Rob- 
ert Hart  the  products  of  all  countries  are  admitted  on  equal 
terms.  The  young  emperor  must  therefore  obtain  a  Germany 
in  Asia  by  spoliation,  or  some  other  equally  honorable  and 
efficient  means,  before  he  can  obtain  his  heart's  desire.  And 
if  no  more  is  necessary  to  become  a  world  power  than  so  to  de- 
clare oneself,  why  should  not  we  of  the  United  States,  who 
are  twice  or  thrice  as  strong  as  Germany,  so  declare  ourselves  ? 
Without  colonies,  and  with  limited  commerce  and  coastline  to 
protect,  what  use  has  the  young  emperor  for  so  many  ships 
as  his  naval  appropriation  would  seem  to  call  for, — $118,000,- 
000,  the  new  battleships  to  be  all  finished  by  1904.  The 
tsar,  who  has  no  beyond-seas  colonies,  and  but  little  commerce 
to  protect,  still  continues  to  order  battleships.  And  so  with 
France.  How  absurd  it  all  is,  as  the  caustic  Carlyle  has  shown, 
that  the  world's  destinies  should  be  determined  by  iron,  salt- 
petre, and  cheap  humanity,  bought  for  so  much  money,  and 
pitted  one  side  against  another  like  fighting  cocks  in  a  pit. 

The  Germans  cannot  longer  be  regarded  as  preeminently  a 
nation  of  thinkers.  Madame  de  Stael  travelling  through  Ger- 
many would  scarcely  be  impressed  with  the  country  as  a  land 
of  thought,  or  the  people  as  specially  distinguished  by  reflec- 
tion and  meditation.  They  are  indeed  far  in  advance  of  the 
Latin  races,  who  may  be  said  scarcely  to  think  at  all,  but  Eng- 
lishmen, and  offshoots  of  England  are  in  mind  as  well  as  man- 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  143 

ners  fast  becoming  superior  to  them.  From  mind  force,  since 
the  beginning  of  the  century,  the  Germans  have  descended 
to  physical  force.  They  depend  now  for  greatness  on  military 
organizations,  and  the  strength  and  skill  of  war.  Instead  of 
Kants  and  Humboldts,  Germany  now  breeds  Moltkes  and  Bis- 
marcks. 

One  would  think  that  French  and  German  priests  could 
find  something  better  to  do  than  to  force  their  way  into 
foreign  parts,  and  stir  up  strife  among  the  people  in  order  to 
get  themselves  maltreated,  and  so  give  an  excuse  to  their  gov- 
ernments for  robbing  the  people  of  their  country.  A  late 
German  outrage,  instigated  by  priests,  was  an  assault  on  the 
magistrate  and  the  desecration  of  the  birthplace  of  Confucius, 
which  the  Chinese  hold  in  special  sanctity.  In  their  trying 
situation  the  Chinese  turned  for  aid  and  sympathy  to  their 
old  enemy  the  Japanese,  all  semblance  of  justice  having  fled 
from  continental  Europe.  Piracy  is  forbidden  by  civilized 
nations,  also  slave-stealing,  and  the  grosser  forms  of  swin- 
dling. As  wrong,  as  infamous  as  any  of  these,  was  the  demand 
of  France  of  a  large  and  valuable  mining  concession  of  1,- 
200,000  taels  in  the  province  of  Zre  Chuan  as  indemnity  for 
the  imprisonment  of  a  French  missionary.  The  price  of  mis- 
sionaries seems  to  have  advanced,  French  missionaries  in  par- 
ticular, a  half  dozen  of  whom,  scattered  about  China  and 
making  themselves  obnoxious  to  the  rabble  so  as  to  have  shel- 
ter given  them  in  a  prison,  might  suffice  France  as  an  excuse 
to  pocket  the  entire  empire. 

If  Christ  had  come  to  China,  and  if  Buddha  had  reigned 
in  Europe,  how  different  it  all  might  have  been,  proselyting 
and  partitioning! 

France  has  in  the  Far  East  Cochin  China,  Cambodia,  and 
Annam,  including  Tongking,  amounting  in  all  to  22,000 
square  miles,  with  a  population  of  1,800,000,  and  a  total  trade 
of  some  $45,000,000.  Her  Asiatic  possessions  lie  -mostly 
within  the  tropics  and  are  unsuitable  for  white  colonization. 
They  are  totally  unfit  for  what  she  most  desires  their  use, 
that  is  lands  for  the  occupation  of  the  French  people.  Com- 
merce is  not  wanted,  but  the  expansion  of  France,  which  re- 
quires the  money  and  the  coherent  ideas  and  action  which  are 
not  present.  With  natives  of  the  tropics  Frenchmen  seem  less 
at  home  than  she  was  formerly  with  the  natives  of  North 


144  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

America.  French  colonies  are  expensively  administered  by 
incompetent  officials,  are  non-commercial  and  conducted  at 
a  loss.  Why  she  desires  more  of  that  kind  of  expansion,  it  is 
difficult  to  understand.  In  occupation  of  one-third  of  Indo- 
China,  she  aims  at  political  as  well  as  commercial  power,  which 
she  means  to  secure  by  railways  into  the  southern  provinces. 
Here  might  be  a  race  for  empire  in  the  south  were  France 
sufficiently  strong. 

At  one  time  the  prestige  of  France  in  Asia  was  equal  to 
that  of  any  other  nation.  Eastern  peoples  were  impressed 
with  her  prowess  as  displayed  by  her  knights  during  the 
crusades;  but  when  her  possessions  in  India  were  wrested 
from  her  by  England,  she  was  held  in  lighter  esteem,  and 
she  is  now  regarded  with  aversion  and  suspicion.  In  neither 
of  her  two  wars  with  China  did  France  gain  for  herself  much 
credit,  while  China  in  the  second  war  won  the  admiration 
and  respect  of  Christendom  by  her  wise  diplomacy  and  liberal 
conduct. 

The  killing  of  certain  missionaries  by  an  exasperated  popu- 
lace was  the  pretext  on  the  part  of  France  for  the  first  war. 
And  as  excuse  for  a  second  war  some  ten  years  later  more 
martyrs  were  found.  Indeed,  murdered  missionaries  have 
often  served  civilization  a  good  turn  in  furnishing  an  excuse 
for  war  sure  to  result  in  rich  spoils  of  gold  and  lands  to  the 
aggressor. 

Joining  the  Spaniards,  the  French  came  down  on  Annam, 
to  wrest  from  Gialung  a  rich  province  which  was  the  entrance 
to  Cambodia,  and  of  which  Saigon  was  the  capital.  An  attack 
on  Tonquin  followed.  The  king  of  Annam  appealed  in  vain 
to  his  suzerain.  But  when  the  French  demanded  sixteen  mill- 
ion dollars  because  two  strategic  forts  were  not  immediately 
abandoned,  the  empress  regent  refused  and  prepared  for  war. 
Then,  first  of  all  she  sought  to  know  the  rules  of  European 
warfare  that  she  might  conform  to  them,  and  so  make  inno- 
cent people,  French  non-combatants  as  well  as  those  of  other 
nations,  as  little  trouble  as  possible.  Failing  to  take  Formosa, 
and  repulsed  with  heavy  loss  in  an  incursion  from  Tonquin, 
hostilities  came  to  an  end,  neither  side  paying  indemnity  nor 
yielding  territory. 

France  and  Germany  are  both  sore  because  while  wanting 
so  much  they  get  so  little,  or  what  they  deem  little  where  the 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  145 

plunder  is  so  large,  and  to  which  they  seem  to  think  they 
have  a  right.  In  vain  they  send  over  priests  to  be  insulted; 
the  insult  is  so  small  and  the  apology  in  the  form  of  lands 
and  concessions  demanded  so  great  as  to  assuredly  exalt  re- 
ligion above  principalities  and  powers.  Long  have  they  been 
jealoue  of  England,  and  now  they  are  jealous  of  the  United 
States  and  the  unwritten  alliance  between  English-speaking 
peoples.  To  the  Anglo-saxon  race  territory  which  they  find 
so  hard  to  get  comes  so  easy,  unsought,  undesired  frequently; 
it  exasperates  them,  and  they  feel  like  fighting  somebody  with 
their  great  armies  which  cost  so  much  and  have  so  little  to  do. 

As  the  Tonquin  boundary  matter  was  not  satisfactorily  set- 
tled in  1884,  a  French  fleet  appeared  in  the  China  sea,  and 
without  warning  began  the  bombardment  of  Fuchau  and  other 
fortified  places.  The  inhabitants  became  greatly  excited,  and 
made  reprisal  on  the  churches  and  property  of  the  mission- 
aries. Among  other  places  Kelung,  on  Formosa  island,  suf- 
fered severely.  After  the  French  had  retired,  the  missionary 
in  charge,  George  Leslie  Mackay,  submitted  a  statement  of 
losses  by  the  Chinese  rioters  amounting  to  $10,000  to  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Chinese  forces,  Liu  Ming  Chuan, 
who  without  delay,  and  without  submitting  the  claim  to  the 
Peking  authorities,  paid  the  amount  in  Mexican  dollars  as  in- 
demnity. It  was  only  when  it  became  apparent  that  she  could 
acquire  preeminence  in  Tonquin  that  there  appeared  evi- 
dence of  a  French  policy  in  China,  based  on  "  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances and  the  weakness  of  the  Chinese  ",  as  Louis  de 
Came  admits,  while  appealing  to  his  chivalrous  people  that 
in  the  coming  dismemberment  of  China  they  should  be  pre- 
pared to  secure  a  portion  for  themselves. 

The  more  intelligent  French  statesmen  have  long  held  the 
opinion  that  with  120,000,000  of  the  Anglo-saxon  race  on 
one  side,  and  the  same  number  of  Russians  on  the  other,  it 
became  a  matter  of  the  utmost  importance  to  find  room  for 
expansion  somewhere,  either  in  Africa  or  Asia  or  both.  Says 
the  economist  Beaulieu,  "  Colonization  is  for  France  a  ques- 
tion of  life  or  death;  either  France  must  become  a  great  Afri- 
can power  or  she  will  be  in  a  century  or  two  but  a  secondary 
European  power;  she  will  count  in  the  world  scarcely  more 
than  Greece  or  Roumania  counts  in  Europe."  In  the  colonial 
policy  of  her  possessions  in  Africa,  southeastern  Asia,  and 


146  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Madagascar,  France  leans  somewhat  closely  to  the  mediaeval- 
ism  of  Spain,  in  forcing  the  inhabitants  to  buy  only  of  her, 
a  practice  certain  in  time  to  result  in  the  loss  to  France  of  her 
colonies,  just  as  Spain  lost  her  boundless  possessions  in  the 
west  and  in  the  east,  and,  as  was  her  boast  centuries  before 
England  or  France  had  stretched  forth  their  grasping  hand 
upon  unprotected  parts,  on  which  the  sun  never  set. 

When  Italy  demanded  from  the  Chinese  government  a  coal- 
ing station  at  San  Mun  bay  she  was  flatly  refused.  Promptly 
the  British  minister  to  China  sent  a  note  to  the  Chinese  gov- 
ernment supporting  Italy's  demand,  and  stating  that  Italy 
would  take  possession  of  San  Mun  bay  with  or  without  China's 
consent.  It  was  apprehended  by  the  Chinese  government 
that  Italy  was  acting  for  England  in  the  matter,  and  that  the 
partition  of  China  was  near  at  hand.  And  still  China  held 
off.  And  when  the  United  States  government  declared  its 
position  in  the  matter  as  one  of  disinterested  neutrality, 
though  it  was  nothing  but  the  simple  truth  clearly  stated,  it 
was  considered  by  the  foreign  offices  clever  diplomacy,  as  sat- 
isfactory both  to  China  and  Europe.  As  San  Mun  bay  is  a 
southerly  port  of  China,  and  important  to  the  commerce  of 
Manila,  the  position  taken  by  the  United  States  government 
was  deemed  important  as  significant  of  its  future  policy. 

It  is  now  the  mission  of  the  powers  to  lie  in  wait  for  oriental 
opportunities.  The  mind  of  the  German  emperor  is  bent  on 
expansion,  and  if  he  cannot  find  place  for  his  people  in  the 
Far  East,  Asia  Minor  and  Palestine  may  suffice;  the  country 
between  Tigris  and  Euphrates  and  Syria  is  good  for  German 
rule  and  German  trade.  The  late  imperial  pilgrimage  to  the 
Holy  Land,  it  was  thought,  had  other  significance  than  the 
outpourings  of  a  devotional  heart. 

For  some  time  prior  to  our  war  with  Spain  it  had  been 
Germany's  determination  to  gain  possession  by  some  means  of 
some  part  of  the  Philippine  islands;  when  therefore  the  Paris 
commission  claimed  them  all  for  the  United  States,  Germany 
was  naturally  disappointed,  and  indulged  in  a  little  harm- 
less abuse.  The  German  emperor  in  his  speech  opening  the 
Reichstag  in  December  1897,  recommended  the  building  of 
more  warships,  as  the  navy  had  not  kept  pace  with  the  growth 
of  transoceanic  interests.  He  called  to  mind  the  murder  of 
two  German  missionaries  in  China,  on  which  even  a  religious 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  147 

journal  comments  with  appropriate  sarcasm  as  follows:  "  The 
emperor  declares  that  he  ordered  the  eastern  Asia  squadron 
to  proceed  to  Kiaochau  bay,  the  point  nearest  the  scene  of 
the  outrage,  and  to  land  troops  in  order  to  obtain  full  repar- 
ation. He  does  not  add  that  the  reparation  already  demanded 
included,  first,  the  discovery  and  execution  of  the  murderers, 
the  punishment  of  implicated  officials — among  whom  must 
be  the  governor  of  Shangtung  province — and  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  missionary  buildings;  secondly,  the  payment  of  a 
600,000  tael  indemnity  to  the  relatives  of  the  victims,  and  of 
another  indemnity  sufficient  to  cover  the  expenses  of  the 
German  naval  expedition,  the  permanent  occupation  of  Kiao- 
chau bay  as  a  German  coaling  station,  and  the  railway  mo- 
nopoly of  the  province  Shangtung.  To  the  first  demands 
China  promptly  acceded;  to  the  last  the  Chinese  monarch  is 
reported  to  have  replied  that  he  would  forfeit  his  crown  rather 
than  be  so  bullied.  The  German  monarch  will  doubtless  have 
an  appropriate  reply  in  turn,  but  it  can  hardly  create  more 
amusement  than  did  the  extemporaneous  remarks  which  he 
addressed  to  the  Eeichstag  on  the  conclusion  of  his  written 
speech.  He  ended  with  an  apostrophe  to  '  the  honor  of  the 
empire  abroad,  which  I  have  not  valued  too  low  to  give  my 
only  brother  in  pledge  for  it.' "  Not  that  the  fraternal  af- 
fection is  so  overpowering  in  the  breast  of  the  emperor,  or 
that  he  really  cares  for  one  or  two  missionaries  more  or  less, 
but  the  poor  fellow  is  dying  of  hunger  for  land  in  China. 

Because  China  is  old,  and  disunited,  and  exclusive,  and 
above  all  because  she  is  weak,  the  powers  of  Europe  regard 
her  as  lawful  prey.  How  long  will  statesmen  and  diplomats 
continue  to  draw  such  marked  distinctions  between  interna- 
tional fraud  and  individual  fraud? 

Following  in  the  wake  of  the  civilization  it  imitates  in 
lootings  as  in  other  things,  Japan  thinks  if  China  is  to  be 
broken  up  and  given  away  that  she  is  entitled  to  a  share.  If 
little  Italy  may  take  San  Mun  without  any  by  your  leave,  a 
province  or  two  would  not  be  too  much  for  China's  late  con- 
queror. Wherefore  Count  Okuma  advises  the  government  "  to 
so  conduct  itself  as  to  induce  China  to  rely  solely  upon  the 
gallant  assistance  of  Japan  for  the  maintenance  of  independ-9 
ence." 

The  time  and  purport  of  the  division  of  China,  if  the  em- 


118  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

pire  is  ever  dismembered,  will  depend  on  circumstance,  and 
the  wisdom  and  energy  the  Chinese  government  displays  in 
centralizing  its  strength  and  developing  its  resources.  Rus- 
sia cares  nothing  for  territory  not  lying  contiguous  to  her 
own;  that  is  why  she  valued  Alaska  so  lightly.  Hence  Eus- 
sia  may  have  her  strip  across  the  north,  while  England  will 
confine  her  diplomacies  to  the  Yangtse  basin,  comprising  one- 
half  of  China  proper,  and  the  best  part  of  the  empire,  leaving 
France  and  Germany  and  the  rest  to  such  crumbs  of  comfort 
as  they  are  able  to  pick  up  in  the  south  and  southwest.  Eng- 
land's late  acquisition  of  Wei-hai-wei,  and  the  country  back 
from  Hongkong,  is  all  in  this  direction,  and  she  gives  fair 
notice,  "  that  there  can  be  no  question  of  the  territory  in  the 
valley  or  region  of  the  Yangtse  being  mortgaged  or  leased  or 
ceded'  to  any  power  ",  other  than  herself.  "  Still  another  evi- 
dence of  British  enterprise  ",  says  an  able  review  writer,  "  is 
seen  in  the  long-termed  concessions  secured  for  an  Anglo- 
Italian  syndicate  to  work  the  coal  and  other  mines  of  the 
provinces  of  Shansi  and  Honan,  and  build  railroads  there. 
The  coal  fields  of  Shansi  cover  an  area  of  more  than  14,000 
square  miles,  and  are  estimated  to  contain  enough  coal  to 
supply  the  entire  world,  at  the  present  rate  of  consumption, 
for  2,000  years  or  more.  A  large  proportion  of  it  is  anthracite, 
equal  in  quality  to  the  best  found  in  Pennsylvania.  Of  it 
there  are  believed  to  be  at  least  630,000,000,000  tons,  or  more 
than  1,200  times  as  much  as  all  the  coal  of  all  kinds  now 
mined  in  the  whole  world  in  a  year.  There  is  also  nearly  as 
much  bituminous  coal,  of  a  fine  coking  quality.  Lying  close 
by,  in  fact,  mingled  with  the  coal  seams,  are  billions  of  tons 
of  the  choicest  iron  ore,  while  petroleum  abounds  in  many 
places;  and  apart  from  its  mineral  wealth  the  country  is  the 
most  fertile,  especially  for  wheat  growing,  in  all  China.  The 
province  lies  on  the  bank  of  the  Yellow  river,  which  under 
civilized  management  may  readily  be  transformed  from  the 
woe  of  China  into  one  of  its  most  beneficent  highways  of 
trade." 

The  aggregate  population  of  the  six  nations  to  which  China 
has  fallen  a  prey  is  but  three-fourths  of  that  of  China;  but 
as  President  Kriiger  says,  "  China  is  not  a  state  but  a  people, 
headless  like  a  flight  of  locusts,  but  lacking  the  community 
instinct  which  makes  of  locusts  a  great  people  though  they 
no  king." 


EUROPE  IN  ASIA  U9 

The  edicts  of  reform  issued  by  the  emperor  show  a  realiz- 
ing sense  of  the  danger  which  threatens  the  empire,  and  the 
proper  means  of  averting  it.  There  must  be  a  centralization 
of  the  strength  of  the  empire  and  the  admission  and  exercise 
of  modern  methods  and  development.  Hence  the  emperor 
now  encourages  the  construction  of  railways,  and  forbids  his 
subjects  interfering  with  them,  as  they  were  at  first  inclined 
to  do.  So  with  regard  to  steam  navigation  on  the  interior 
waterways,  the  opening  of  mines  and  the  introduction  of  man- 
ufactures, the  establishing  of  schools  where  English  and 
science,  and  the  ways  of  westerners,  are  taught.  China  is 
awakening. 

To  turn  the  balance  of  European  power  we  do  not  now  go 
to  the  Rhine  or  the  Danube,  but  to  eastern  Asia.  And  as  the 
people  of  the  United  States  are  as  intelligent,  as  wealthy,  and 
as  enterprising  as  are  any  of  those  of  the  other  world  powers, 
though  we  do  not  want  any  of  China's  people  or  property  for 
nothing,  yet  it  is  as  clearly  our  duty  to  exercise  for  good  the 
influence  God  has  given  us  in  China  as  it  was  in  Cuba.  The 
war,  and  the  Asiatic  domain  it  secured,  give  the  United  States 
an  influence  at  Peking  which  should  be  second  only  to  that  of 
Great  Britain,  an  influence  which  might  always  be  used  in 
behalf  of  justice  and  humanity,  in  preventing  the  seizure  and 
partition  of  China,  in  holding  open  the  door  to  commerce,  or 
at  the  least  in  securing  access  on  the  most  favorable  terms  for 
American  manufactures. 

But  for  England's  jealousy,  and  I  will  add  sense  of  de- 
cency, and  her  policy  of  an  open  door  for  commerce,  and  the 
necessity  of  preserving  the  world's  potential  equilibrium,  with 
herself  as  first  and  strongest,  China  would  long  since  have 
been  partitioned  among  the  cormorants  of  the  continent. 
Though  England's  sins  are  many,  she  has  long  ago  repented 
of  her  opium  infamy,  and  can  now  be  trusted  better  than  any 
of  the  others  to  do  about  the  fair  thing  in  regard  to  China. 

China,  too,  is  behaving  very  well  under  the  infliction  of  en- 
forced civilization,  and  if  allowed  the  opportunity  will  de- 
velop under  her  own  rule  as  Japan  has  done.  And  it  is  not 
only  the  policy  but  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to  come 
squarely  to  the  front  as  one  interested  in  the  affairs  of  China, 
and  not  afraid  of  responsibility.  Let  congress  be  not  quite 
so  parsimonious;  it  has  done  and  can  do  worse  than  to  spend 
6 


150  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

money  for  the  advancement  of  the  best  interests  of  the  people. 
AVhat  is  to  be  done  with  the  immense  wealth  which  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  are  rolling  up  for  themselves?  What 
better  can  be  done  with  money  than  to  develop  the  resources 
of  the  Pacific,  where  fame  and  fortune  invite.  Not  that  tax- 
ation need  be  increased  so  as  to  become  a  burden;  few  have 
felt  the  cost  of  our  war  with  Spain.  But  give  to  the  encour- 
agement of  commerce  and  manufactures  on  the  Pacific  at 
least  one  short  line  government  railway  across  the  midconti- 
nent  desert,  thus  delivering  the  Pacific  from  the  power  of 
monopolies;  give  to  this  latest  and  greatest  of  progressional 
evolutions  one-tenth  of  the  time  devoted  to  the  selfish  schem- 
ing of  statesmen,  one-tenth  of  the  money  drawn  from  the 
people  and  spent  by  politicians  and  office-holders  on  them- 
selves and  for  useless  purposes,  and  the  shores  of  the  Pacific 
will  soon  bloom  with  manufactures,  and  her  waters  swarm 
with  an  American  merchant  marine. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    PACIFIC    OCEAN    AND    ITS    BOBDEBS 

FIBST  the  Mediterranean,  then  the  Atlantic,  and  now  the 
Pacific.  For  as  culture  ever  crystallizes  round  some  sea,  great 
or  small,  since  our  civilization  has  become  so  great,  it  must 
needs  have  a  great  ocean  for  its  use  and  pleasure.  For  four 
thousand  years  we  have  known  the  first;  the  last  knows  us 
scarce  four  hundred;  and  yet  three  of  these  four  centuries, 
passed  under  the  dreamy  influences  of  Spain  and  far  Cathay, 
make  the  place  seem  to  us  old,  very  old,  only  the  present  being 
new.  Seems  to  us  long  ago  since  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa,  on 
the  25th  of  September,  1513,  with  uplifted  face  and  drawn 
sword,  strode  into  Panama  bay,  and  pompously  laid  claim  for 
Spain  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  to  all  not  previously  taken,  all 
that  ocean  sea,  all  that  it  held  or  bordered  on.  Yet  fifty  other 
years  and  it  was  asleep  again,  and  indeed  is  but  just  now 
awakening. 

If  Balboa's  claim  held  good, — and  practically  it  proved  valid 
enough  until  quite  recently, — then  by  virtue  of  this  call  to 
winds  and  waves  Spain  became  owner  and  possessor  of  the 
western  part  of  all  the  two  Americas,  of  Australia  and  all  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific,  besides  half  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia, 
only  Japan  and  China  being  then  known  to  Europe,  and  those 
by  no  means  well  or  definitely  known.  Never  before  or  since 
were  made  of t  expressed  human  pretensions  so  vast  and  varied, 
or  if  made  so  nearly  realized.  Spain  thus  claimed  by  rights 
at  that  time  regarded  valid,  and  held  as  long  as  she  was  able, 
loosening  her  grasp  on  piece  by  piece  of  it  as  her  strength 
gave  way,  the  whole  Pacific  ocean,  or  nearly  all  of  it. 

In  the  uplifting  of  the  primeval  mists  which  had  kept  this 
region  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  Europeans,  there  stood  re- 
vealed another  world,  another  sky,  a  new  earth  and  a  new 
heaven.  And  there  were  fresh  souls  to  save,  if  peradventure 
6  151 


152  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

these  naked  dark-skinned  things  had  souls;  and  there  was 
ready  pay  for  the  work,  pleasant  work  and  good  pay,  the  fun 
of  killing,  with  double  compensation,  an  earthly  reward  and 
an  heavenly;  gold  and  glory  here  and  a  blessed  immortality. 
Long  enough  time  they  had  for  this  holy  contemplation,  and 
for  the  many  dastardly  deeds  which  accompanied  it;  for  it 
was  more  than  200  years  after  the  performance  of  Balboa  at 
Panama  that  the  Russians  found  Kamchatka,  and  250  years 
before  Cook  encountered  Australia  and  the  Hawaiian  islands. 

The  economic  centre  of  the  civilized  world,  along  with 
civilization  itself,  has  ever  been  moving  westward.  There 
were  the  successive  changes  from  Carthage  to  Italy,  from  Italy 
to  Holland,  and  then  to  England;  receding  eastward  for  the 
moment  on  the  continent  from  France  to  Germany  and  Rus- 
sia; but  from  England  crossing  the  Atlantic,  and  continuing 
overland  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  Thus  the  United  States  war 
with  Spain,  which  helped  and  hastened  the  opening  of  the 
Pacific,  proves  itself  a  factor  in  bringing  about  the  industrial 
equilibrium  of  the  world.  And  now  this  Pacific  sea  is  destined 
to  assume  its  natural  supremacy.  Once  all  the  nations  clus- 
tered round  the  Mediterranean;  then  the  Atlantic  became  the 
theatre  of  commerce  and  international  intercourse;  but  the 
world  is  not  now  too  large  to  take  into  its  consideration  the 
greatest  of  its  seas,  and  sail  its  ships  and  send  its  commerce 
over  and  around  it,  as  formerly  the  Golden-Fleece  searchers 
sailed  the  mighty  Mediterranean. 

This  ocean  gives  us  breathing  space  which  the  world  has 
never  had  before.  It  shows  if  God  be  good  how  much  better 
water  is  than  land.  This  ocean  with  its  pearl-lined  bottom 
and  jewelled  sides  comes  in  at  this  juncture  of  the  world's 
history  as  a  new  fighting  ground,  a  broader  field  for  the  dis- 
play of  naval  athletics  than  we  have  ever  had  before.  The 
chivalrous  doings  of  the  Alabama  to  merchant  vessels  pale  be- 
fore Dewey's  smiting  of  Spain  at  the  Philippines. 

The  influence  of  the  ocean  on  man  is  marked.  The  savages 
who  live  by  the  sea  are  different  from  those  who  live  inland; 
if  not  so  cunning  they  are  bold,  and  seem  to  have  more  breadth 
of  brain.  The  small  classic  Mediterranean  had  at  an  early 
date  its  classic  inhabitants;  thus  far  the  Atlantic  is  more 
symbolical  of  wealth  and  strength;  the  Pacific  of  romance 
and  adventure.  The  Northmen  lived  by  the  sea.  as  did  the 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     153 

Phoenicians;  but  they  were  different  seas  and  different  peo- 
ple. Mexican  culture  blossomed  in  the  middle  of  a  lake,  like 
Venice  by  the  sea,  and  Rotterdam  in  the  ocean;  the  Peruvians 
were  a  maritime  people  like  the  Carthagenians.  The  waters 
of  the  Mediterranean  were  quite  broad  enough  for  the  quality 
of  civilization  planted  on  its  borders. 

With  expansive  environment  the  mind  of  man  is  forced  to 
expand.  With  the  enlarged  knowledge  of  the  Pacific  came 
further  knowledge  of  physical  forces,  the  distribution  of  heat, 
the  courses  of  atmospheric  and  marine  currents,  and  the  lux- 
uriant organic  phenomena  thus  brought  to  light.  It  was  the 
sea  that  made  Holland  and  England.  It  was  the  sea  that  de- 
stroyed Spain,  protesting,  perhaps,  like  the  sensible  thing  it  is, 
that  Spaniards  are  not  fit  to  live.  The  sea  gave  England  her 
navy,  her  merchant  marine,  her  colonial  possessions,  each  the 
greatest  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  and  the  last  the  greatest  the 
world  will  ever  see  again. 

Amidst  the  evolutions  of  nations  the  sea  is  regaining  su- 
premacy. When  the  Mediterranean  was  the  world,  and  its 
borders  the  boundary  between  time  and  sense,  an  eternity  of 
supernatural  frost  and  fire  rose  on  either  side.  From  out  the 
waters  came  the  land,  where  there  was  no  land,  and  from 
chaos  the  kosmos.  Since  the  time  when  the  spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  the  ocean  has  exercised 
a  paramount  influence  on  the  destinies  of  man. 

Then  comes  an  order  under  a  new  dispensation,  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  New  Pacific.  And  it  says,  The  sea  dominates 
commerce  but  man  dominates  the  sea.  The  circulation  of 
oceanic  waters  from  currents,  counter-currents,  and  tides  is 
the  life  of  the  body.  Not  that  oceans  grow  from  small  Medi- 
terraneans to  large  Pacifies,  but  man's  ideas  and  capabilities 
are  ever  enlarging,  so  that  to  the  mind  of  to-day  the  Pacific 
is  no  larger  than  was  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Carthagenians. 
Around  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  the  greatest  of  the  world's 
waters,  are  now  circling  the  world-currents  of  progress,  in- 
stinct with  thought  and  energy.  All  the  elements,  earth  air 
and  water,  breathe  of  activity  and  life.  The  civilizations  of 
the  future  will  cluster  here,  and  become  merged  into  one 
civilization,  with  this  ocean  as  a  common  centre,  across  and 
around  which  swift  intercourse  will  bring  the  various  parts 
into  near  relationship. 


154  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

And  should  the  sea  need  further  eulogy,  let  the  reader  turn 
back  to  that  noble  and  prolific  old  chronicler,  Samuel  Purchas, 
His  Pilgrimes,  who  thus  declaims:  "  Man  should  at  once 
lose  half  his  inheritance,  if  the  art  of  navigation  did  not  enable 
him  to  manage  this  untamed  beast,  and  with  the  bridle  of  the 
winds  and  saddle  of  his  shipping  to  make  him  serviceable. 
Now,  for  the  services  of  the  sea,  they  are  innumerable;  it  is 
the  great  purveyor  of  the  world's  commodities  to  our  use; 
conveyer  of  the  excess  of  rivers;  uniter  by  traffic  of  all  na- 
tions; it  presents  the  eye  with  diversified  colours  and  motions, 
and  is,  as  it  were  with  rich  brooches,  adorned  with  various 
islands.  It  is  an  open  field  for  merchandise  in  peace,  a  pitched 
field  for  the  most  dreadful  fights  of  war;  yields  diversity  of 
fish  and  fowls  for  diet,  materials  for  wealth,  medicine  for 
health,  simples  for  medicine,  pearls  and  other  jewels  for  orna- 
ment, amber  and  ambergris  for  delight,  the  wonders  of  the 
lord  in  the  deep  for  instruction,  variety  of  creatures  for  use, 
multiplicity  of  natures  for  contemplation,  diversity  of  acci- 
dents for  admiration;  compendiousness  to  the  way,  to  full 
bodies  healthful  evacuation,  to  the  thirsty  earth  fertile  moist- 
ure, to  distant  friends  pleasant  meeting,  to  weary  persons  de- 
lightful refreshing,  to  studious  and  religious  minds  a  mass  of 
knowledge,  mystery  of  temperance,  exercise  of  continence;  a 
school  of  prayer,  meditation,  devotion,  and  sobriety;  refuge 
to  the  distressed;  portage  to  the  merchant;  passage  to  the 
traveller;  customs  to  the  prince;  springs,  lakes,  rivers,  to 
the  earth;  it  hath  on  it  tempests  and  calms  to  chastise  the 
sins,  to  exercise  the  faith,  of  seamen;  manifold  affections  in 
itself,  to  affect  and  stupify  the  subtlest  philosopher;  sus- 
taineth  movable  fortresses  for  the  soldier;  maintaineth,  as  in 
our  island,  a  wall  of  defence  and  watery  garrison  to  guard  the 
state,  entertains  the  sun  with  vapours,  the  moon  with  obse- 
quiousness, the  stars  also  with  a  natural  looking  glass,  the 
sky  with  clouds,  air  with  temperatures,  the  soil  with  supple- 
ness, the  rivers  with  tides,  the  hills  with  moisture,  the  valleys 
with  fertility;  containeth  the  most  diversified  matter  for 
meteors,  most  multiform  shapes,  most  various,  numerous 
kinds,  most  immense,  difformed,  deformed,  unformed  mon- 
sters; once — for  why  should  I  longer  detain  you? — the  sea 
yields  action  to  the  body,  meditation  to  the  mind,  the  world 
to  the  world,  all  parts  thereof  to  each  part,  by  this  art  of  arts, 
Navigation  ". 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS  BORDERS     155 

Thus  an  ancient  Englishman;  and  now  a  modern  French- 
man: "  The  sea  ",  says  Alphonse  Esquiros  in  La  Neerlande 
et  la  Vie  Hollandaise,  "  has  been  for  modern  nations,  but 
more  particularly  for  Holland,  a  grand  theatre  of  moral  de- 
velopment. The  influence  which  this  mass  of  water  has  ex- 
ercised on  civilization  has  hitherto  been  too  little  considered; 
without  it  man  had  never  fully  recognized  the  extent  of  his 
powers;  he  had  not  turned  his  eyes  towards  heaven  with  in- 
trepid perseverance  to  observe  the  planetary  motions;  the 
physical  sciences,  industry,  and  the  useful  arts  had  never  ad- 
vanced a  step  beyond  the  limits  of  the  middle  ages.  Hol- 
land is  the  child  of  the  ocean,  and  has  marched  upon  the 
ocean  to  the  conquest  of  boundless  wealth  ". 

And  now  for  a  sun-picture  of  this  Pacific.  Place  before  you 
a  map  of  the  world  while  I  fill  in  the  details.  Not  the  map 
of  Hipparchus  of  Nicaea,  nor  the  map  of  Marinus  of  Tyre, 
nor  even  Ptolemy's  map  of  the  world,  made  in  the  second 
century  of  our  era,  for  these  men  knew  little  of  the  world, 
and  still  less  of  the  Pacific.  Some  say  that  Ptolemy's  Magnus 
Sinus  represents  this  greatest  of  waters;  but  if  so  why  should 
the  first  of  cosmographers,  and  those  who  came  after  him, 
have  placed  it  near  the  gulf  of  Siam  in  the  Indian  ocean? 
Neither  knew  Christopher  Columbus  aught  of  this  vast  liquid 
expanse,  which  covers  one-quarter  of  the  globe  and  comprises 
one-half  of  its  water  surface.  In  the  mind  of  the  Genoese  the 
world  was  smaller  than  it  is,  and  where  stands  the  Pacific,  all 
was  blank,  save  that  somewhere  thereabout  was  the  Terrestrial 
Paradise  of  Dante,  the  India  to  the  west  being  but  the  other 
side  of  the  well-known  India  to  the  east.  No  attention  had 
been  paid  by  the  map-makers  of  the  pre-Columbian  period, 
or  by  any  of  the  earlier  geographers,  to  the  wild  tales  told  by 
Sulaiman,  the  Arabian  merchant,  who  lived  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, and  affirmed  that  he  had  seen  and  sailed  upon  great 
waters  beyond  China,  or  by  Marco  Polo,  the  Venetian  traveller, 
the  importance  of  whose  discoveries  were  seemingly  in  pro- 
portion to  the  extravagance  of  his  stories  concerning  them. 

Those  alone  who  had  lived  upon  its  isles  or  along  its  shores, 
coming  and  going  with  the  centuries,  stolid  savages  for  the 
most  part,  had  ever  seen  this  ocean,  or  seeing  had  scarcely 
more  conception  of  its  nature  and  extent  than  the  rocks  and 
trees  around  them.  Let  us  glance  round  the  arena,  from  Pata- 


156  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

gonia  to  Australia,  and  see  what  manner  of  men  are  these  who 
come  no  one  knows  whence  and  pass  on  no  one  knows  whither. 
For  the  question  was  early  settled  by  the  cardinals  in  solemn 
conclave  that  these  were  men,  and  not  brute  beasts  merely, 
but  animals  with  souls,  and  so  subjects  for  christiamzation  by 
the  Spanish  process,  thus  giving  honor  and  emoluments  to 
both  church  and  state.  Thus  unknown  to  all  then  known  to 
history  stood  this  ocean  sea,  on  that  memorable  day  when 
Europeans  first  beheld  it,  gazing  with  rapture  on  the  sun-lit 
waters  from  the  hill  of  Quarequa. 

See  now  what  these  steel-clad  specimens  from  Europe  did 
after  taking  a  good  look  at  this  water.  First,  they  all  knelt 
down  and  thanked  God.  For  what?  For  giving  them  this 
ocean  sea,  as  they  called  it,  signifying  thereby  a  large  sea  and 
not  a  small  one, — for  giving  them  this  immeasurable  ocean  of 
Avealth  and  opportunity;  which  was  taking  much  for  granted. 
The  manner  in  which  they  manifested  their  gratitude  to  the 
Almighty  for  his  alleged  gift,  was  to  go  down  to  the  beach 
and  rob  and  burn  some  villages  of  the  natives.  Then  seizing 
some  boats,  they  compelled  the  owners  to  paddle  them  over 
to  some  islands  where  they  had  been  told  were  pearls,  and 
called  the  Pearl  islands,  off  Panama,  to  this  day.  Panama 
was  a  native  fishing  station,  the  word  signifying  "  A  place 
where  many  fish  are  taken".  Capturing  the  village  at  the 
Pearl  islands,  they  secured  a  basin  of  pearls,  240  of  which 
were  of  extraordinary  size  and  value.  This  was  almost  Cathay; 
as  with  the  gold  and  pearls  they  found  women. 

After  Balboa  came  Pedrarias  to  the  Pacific,  and  established 
a  Spanish  town  at  Panama,  and  then  went  to  govern  Nicara- 
gua, where  Gil  Gonzalez  had  been  before  him  baptizing  and 
looting  the  natives.  Yasco  Nunez  had  built  some  boats  in  the 
Darien  hills  for  a  sail  on  the  Pacific,  but  was  charged  with 
treason  and  beheaded,  the  king  pretending  to  fear  that  it  was 
really  the  intention  of  the  cavalier  to  pocket  the  entire  Pa- 
cific. The  winds  and  the  waves  to  which  Balboa  had  dis- 
coursed so  eloquently,  claiming  the  mastery  over  them,  the 
king  seemed  to  fear  would  really  obey  him,  and  thus  royalty 
be  cheated  of  its  rights. 

Finding  Balboa's  boats,  Gil  Gonzalez  coasted  northward, 
and  presently  came  to  the  gulf  of  Nicoya,  the  chief  there  liv- 
ing as  well  as  the  bay  being  then  so  called,  as  the  latter  is 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND  ITS   BORDERS     15? 

called  to-day.  Then  to  Nicaragua's  town  and  lake,  of  whose 
chief  Nicoya  had  assured  the  Spaniards:  "  He  is  wise  and 
valiant,  and  your  little  army  will  melt  before  his  warrior  host." 
Into  Nicaragua's  fresh-water  sea  Gil  Gonzalez  rode  his  horse, 
and  took  possession  of  it  under  the  very  eye  of  the  wondering 
chief,  not  with  wet  feet  like  Balboa  in  the  Pacific,  but  still 
with  sword-shaking,  and  drinking  and  spouting  out  the  water. 
From  Mexico  came  two  captains  of  Cortes,  Alvarado  to  Guate- 
mala and  Olid  to  Honduras;  and  so  this  country  became 
colonized. 

From  Panama  southward,  after  Andagoya  had  found  Biru, 
went  Pizarro  and  a  cutthroat  crew  after  the  treasures  of  the 
incas.  It  was  in  1524  that  they  set  sail  in  a  small  caravel, 
100  men  and  four  horses.  Passing  the  spot  where  afterward 
was  placed  Trujillo,  Pizarro  came  to  Tumbez  and  Cuzco,  dis- 
covering and  taking  possession  of  the  coast  and  towns  of  Peru. 
Already  Magellan  had  coasted  Chili,  before  turning  off  for  the 
Philippines,  and  so  South  America  was  encompassed. 

In  every  quarter  an  ardent  desire  prevailed  to  discover  a 
shorter  route  to  the  Spice  islands.  Cortes  was  urged  to  this 
by  Charles  V.  Alvaro  de  Saavedra  was  despatched  from  the 
coast  of  Mexico  to  the  Moluccas,  and  in  1527  we  find  the 
Spanish  conqueror  of  Mexico  writing  letters  from  his  capital 
of  Tenochtitlan  to  the  kings  of  Zebu  and  Tidor  in  the  Asiatic 
island  world. 

Before  the  coming  of  Magellan,  whose  voyage  was  one  of 
the  most  important  in  history,  nothing  further  than  what  I 
have  told  was  known  of  this  ocean,  or  that  on  it  one  might 
sail  straight  as  the  crow  flies  from  south  to  north,  and  from 
east  to  west,  10,000  miles  without  touching  land,  or  that  it  was 
the  same  ocean  as  the  south  Pacific  which  when  first  en- 
countered from  India  was  regarded  as  the  continuation  of  the 
sinus  magnus  of  Ptolemy,  with  an  eastern  boundary  not  far 
distant.  Balboa,  Pedrarias  Davila,  and  Cortes  all  held  the 
opinion  that  the  Pacific  was  part  of  the  Indian  ocean,  whose 
shores  and  islands  were  rich  in  rare  woods  and  spices,  and  in 
gold  pearls  and  precious  stones.  By  each  subsequent  discov- 
ery the  mind  was  more  and  more  wrought  into  excitement  as 
the  wonoers  of  knowledge  increased,  still  leaving  so  much 
as  yet  undiscovered  and  so  many  marvels  unexplained.  No 
one  had  imagined  such  a  world  as  this.  And  when  half 


158  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

known,  which  indeed  is  the  worst  form  of  ignorance,  never 
was  there  a  Don  Quixote  more  wild  in  his  wind-mill  vagaries, 
according  to  the  tales  of  them  that  were  told,  than  some  of 
these  knights  of  antipodal  adventure,  who  sought  for  straits 
through  continents,  for  Amazonian  Californias,  picturing 
meanwhile  in  their  new  geographies  the  sea-monsters  and  hob- 
goblins of  the  past  in  truthful  and  orthodox  colorings.  And 
it  was  so  much  better,  they  thought,  filling  up  the  blank 
spaces  in  charts  from  imagination  than  to  leave  bare  white 
paper.  There  was  no  room  in  the  geography  of  the  time  for 
a  Pacific  ocean.  The  great  cosmographer,  Paul  Toscanelli, 
still  held  to  the  opinion  expressed  in  Ptolemy's  Almagest,  that 
the  continent  of  Asia  extended  west  over  half  the  earth,  or 
180  equatorial  degrees  from  Spain  to  eastern  Sina?.  Other 
cosmographers  extended  this  area  to  240  degrees,  bringing 
the  coast  of  Asia  to  the  meridian  of  San  Diego,  and  leaving 
no  space  for  the  Pacific  ocean.  Hence  the  opening  of  eyes 
that  followed  the  discoveries  of  Balboa  and  Magellan,  and  the 
loosening  of  tongues  that  talked  the  world  into  beliefs  in 
Anian  straits  and  other  northern  mysteries. 

That  the  first  discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen 
should  have  produced  so  little  effect  upon  progress  was  be- 
cause the  world  was  not  ready  for  it.  The  world  was  yet  too 
ignorant;  the  human  intellect  was  not  sufficiently  advanced 
to  properly  comprehend  the  nature  and  extent  of  this  great 
wonder,  or  its  effect  on  their  destinies.  Besides,  it  was  not 
generally  or  adequately  or  precisely  known  outside  of  Scan- 
dinavia. The  knowledge  thus  obtained  was  immediately 
locked  in  sagas  away  from  the  world,  and  the  value  of  the 
discovery  was  not  realized  until  centuries  after  when  the 
sagas  revealed  the  facts  with  new  and  striking  force  and  vivid- 
ness. The  influence  upon  the  world  of  science,  and  upon  in- 
tellectual development,  of  the  discovery  and  exploration  of 
the  Pacific  ocean,  was  if  possible  even  greater  than  that  of  the 
discoveries  of  the  Northmen  and  of  the  Genoese.  For  not 
only  were  the  extent  and  configuration  of  the  world  thus  de- 
termined, the  relative  water  and  land  surface,  the  atmospheric 
and  oceanic  currents,  the  distribution  of  animals  and  plants, 
but  many  other  things  hitherto  not  understood  were  accounted 
for,  humidity  and  dryness,  influence  of  mountains  and  vege- 
tation on  moisture,  effect  of  cosmic  forces  on  man,  and  a 
hundred  other  like  subjects. 


THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN  AND  ITS   BORDERS     159 

The  world  was  unfolding  her  secrets,  and  to  Europe  knowl- 
edge of  the  Pacific  ocean  came  as  a  surprise,  and  a  not  alto- 
gether pleasing  one.  It  made  the  world  larger,  too  large;  it 
was  large  enough  before.  To  get  round  it,  or  on  to  the  other 
side,  and  back  of  India,  going  west,  after  crossing  the  At- 
lantic and  doubling  the  horn  of  America  there  was  this  other 
great  ocean  to  traverse  before  reaching  the  famed  Zipangu, 
Cathay,  and  the  Spice  islands,  with  all  their  great  riches,  their 
mountains  of  metal,  and  islands  of  pearls  and  precious  stones. 
What  was  the  use  of  such  a  waste  of  water,  only  to  distress  the 
poor  sailors? 

On  the  one  side  of  this  great  ocean  sea  is  the  newest  of  the 
New  World,  on  the  other  side  the  oldest  of  the  Old  World, 
that  is  to  say  the  oldest  still  existing  of  the  old  world  civili- 
zations. The  borders  are  for  the  most  part  mountainous,  vol- 
canic ranges  rising  behind  low  narrow  seaboards,  some  of 
whose  highest  peaks  stand  sentinel  in  perpetual  snow  under 
the  equator.  Round  the  amphitheatre  of  water  runs  a  circle 
of  fire,  some  of  these  volcanic  mountains,  in  lateral  or  parallel 
ranges,  others  in  a  line  along  the  shore,  and  others  again  in  in- 
land lacustrine  basins,  this  volcanic  ring  being  about  22,000 
miles  in  circumference.  Beginning  in  the  south  at  New 
Zealand  and  the  Fiji  islands,  as  an  early  centre  of  volcanic  ac- 
tivity, round  which  are  hundreds  of  extinct  or  active  craters, 
and  proceeding  on  the  one  side  to  and  beyond  the  basaltic 
islands  of  Juan  Fernandez,  and  on  the  other  to  Australia  and 
the  Solomon  isles,  we  find  ourselves  at  what  has  been  called 
the  focus  of  the  lava  streams  of  the  planet. 

Off  the  Indo-Chinese  peninsula  are  a  hundred  volcanoes 
vomiting  ashes  lava  and  mud,  bursting  forth  now  and  then  in 
terrible  explosions  which  destroy  villages  and  cover  with  dust 
and  debris  areas  hundreds  of  miles  in  extent.  Every  large 
island,  and  nearly  every  small  one,  is  punctured  with  one  or 
more  outlets  for  internal  fires.  Java  alone  has  forty-five  vol- 
canoes; while  from  beautiful  Sumatra  to  Borneo,  and  on  to 
Mindanao  and  Luzon,  there  are  two  gigantic  tracks  of  fire. 
North  of  the  Philippines  the  volcanic  line  curves  east- 
ward, following  the  trend  of  the  coast, — Formosa  and  the 
Liou-Kieon  archipelago  first,  then  the  isles  of  Japan,  where 
stands  conspicuous  the  sacred  Fujiyama,  whose  gods  look 
down  on  Niphon;  the  Kurile  archipelago,  with  a  dozen  vol- 


160  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

canic  orifices,  and  then  the  peninsula  of  Kamchatka,  where  a 
dozen  more  are  usually  active. 

With  a  graceful  curve  thirty-four  cones  swing  southward 
round  the  Bering  sea  to  Alaska,  on  the  peninsula  Ounimak 
standing  conspicuous,  and  further  eastward  St  Elias  and  Fair- 
weather,  pouring  forth  venom,  the  former  at  a  height  of  17,716 
feet,  and  the  latter  of  14,370  feet.  And  so  on,  from  Edge- 
cumbe  in  Lazarus  island,  all  along  the  volcanic  region  of 
British  Columbia,  along  the  Cascade-Nevada  range  of  Wash- 
ington Oregon  and  northern  California,  there  are  notable 
peaks,  Hood,  Shasta,  Helena,  and  others,  from  9,000  to  16,000 
feet  high.  In  southern  California  and  northern  Mexico  the 
basaltic  and  trachytic  coast  elevations  have  fewer  outlets,  but 
on  the  high  plateau  of  Central  Mexico,  Colima,  Jorullo, 
Popocatepetl  and  the  rest  stand  proudly  forth.  Central  Amer- 
ica has  some  famous  volcanoes,  as  del  Fuego  and  del  Agua  in 
Guatemala;  the  Phare  d'lsalco,  which  at  night  lights  up  the 
broad  plain  of  Salvador  with  its  jets  of  molten  stone  and  red 
smoke;  Coseguina,  whose  late  eruption  is  counted  among  the 
greatest  of  modern  times;  and  Momotombo  and  other  moun- 
tains, worshipped  in  a  propitiatory  way  on  account  of  the 
evil  they  do.  Crossing  at  Panama  by  the  isthmus  which 
bridges  the  continental  break  to  South  America,  and  we  find 
ourselves  at  once  in  a  nest  of  enormous  equatorial  volcanoes, 
— Tolima,  17,716  feet  high;  and  to  the  south  the  Pasto  group 
of  sixteen,  some  smoking  some  extinct,  among  them  Cotopaxi, 
Tunguragua,  Carahuizo,  and  the  rest,  and  towering  over  all  the 
proud  dome  of  Chimborazo.  Then  Sangay,  one  of  the  most 
destructive  of  all  the  burning  mountains,  and  after  that,  still 
pointing  southward,  a  subterranean  rest  in  the  Cordilleras 
for  a  distance  of  930  miles  to  southern  Peru,  where  volcanic 
peaks  and  domes  of  trachyte  again  appear.  The  volcanic  chain 
of  the  two  Americas,  coining  from  the  north,  may  be  said  to 
terminate  in  the  three  smoking  peaks  Antuco,  Villarica,  and 
Osorno,  in  Chili,  though  subterranean  action  breaks  out  in 
milder  form  all  the  way  to  Tierra  del  Fuego. 

Within  this  Pacific  basin  are  myriads  of  charming  isles  of 
volcanic  origin,  some  still  spluttering,  some  quiescent,  chief 
among  them  being  the  far-famed  Mauna  Loa  and  Mauna  Kea 
of  Hawaii.  In  the  Marianne  and  Gallapagos  groups  are  many 
active  orifices,  and  some  2,000  extinct  craters. 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS  BORDERS     161 

This  much  may  we  behold  upon  the  surface  of  things,  but 
who  shall  say  as  to  the  craters  and  crevices  of  ocean,  the  sub- 
merged peaks  and  domes,  mountains  burning  beneath  the 
waters,  over  their  crests  perhaps  islands  of  scoriae,  or  the  flat- 
tened sea-mountains  themselves  upheaved  by  the  mighty 
powers  of  unrest.  Thus  have  arisen  within  recent  times  two 
mountains  of  the  Aleutian  isles,  and  if  the  ancient  chroniclers 
may  be  believed  several  cases  of  volcanic  emergence  from 
waters  which  wash  the  coasts  of  Japan,  China,  and  Korea  have 
occurred  within  historic  times. 

The  American  side  of  the  Pacific  is  bluff,  the  Asiatic  side 
has  low  fertile  shores.  Alaska's  borders  are  low  and  swampy. 
We  notice  on  the  eastern  side  comparatively  few  islands,  while 
on  the  western  side,  and  at  the  northern  end  are  islands  in- 
numerable. Nowhere  on  the  globe  is  found  so  many  groups 
and  such  an  innumerable  number  of  islands,  in  size  from  the 
up-shooting  rock  to  the  island-continent  of  Australia.  The 
American  Pacific  seaboard  has  fewer  indentations  and  sea- 
ports than  the  littoral  line  of  Asia,  broken  by  earthquakes 
and  ocean  currents  into  various  forms  of  bays  peninsulas  and 
continental  fragments. 

North  of  the  equator  there  is  more  land  than  water;  south 
of  it  there  is  more  water  than  land.  The  lands  of  the  north- 
ern hemisphere  are  largely  in  the  temperate  zone;  the  lands 
of  the  southern  hemisphere  lie  chiefly  in  the  tropics,  become 
hot,  and  engender  great  animal  and  vegetable  vitality,  regu- 
late the  action  of  winds  and  rains,  and  give  rise  to  hurricanes. 

Once  an  unbroken  basin  save  at  the  southern  side,  the  now 
disjoined  isthmus  between  Australia  and  Asia  and  the  Bering 
passage  from  the  Arctic  being  closed,  and  all  encircled  by 
fire,  molten  rocks  with  torrents  of  gas  shooting  forth  from  in- 
ner combustion,  where  were  forged  the  metals  that  seamed 
the  mountains,  of  a  truth  the  Pacific,  eras  past,  as  now,  was 
full  of  wonders. 

The  rivers  emptying  into  the  largest  of  oceans  are  not  the 
largest  of  rivers,  nor  are  they  as  numerous  here  as  in  some 
other  quarters.  The  Andean  range  runs  too  near  the  shore 
to  permit  of  large  streams  in  Pacific  South  America,  while  in 
western  North  America  there  are  only  the  Colorado,  Sacra- 
mento, Columbia,  and  Fraser,  which  may  be  dignified  by  that 
term,  until  we  reach  the  Yukon,  whose  waters  enter  the  Pa- 


163  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

cific  by  way  of  Bering  strait.  On  the  Asiatic  side  are  the 
Amur,  Hoang-ho,  Yangtse,  and  Mekhong,  only  the  large  con- 
tinent having  large  streams. 

In  their  hydrographical  systems  the  oceans  differ  widely, 
most  of  the  great  rivers  of  the  world  flowing  into  the  Atlantic, 
and  lesser  ones  into  the  Pacific.  That  is  to  say,  as  against  the 
Columbia,  Fraser,  and  Yukon,  the  Amur,  Hoang-ho,  the 
Yangtse,  and  the  Cambodin  of  the  Pacific,  there  are  the  Uru- 
guay and  Parana,  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco,  the  Missis- 
sippi and  St  Lawrence,  not  to  mention  the  Congo  Niger  and 
Gambia,  and  by  way  of  the  Mediterranean  the  Nile  and  the 
Danube.  No  country  so  mountainous  is  so  poorly  supplied 
with  rivers  as  the  west  coast  of  South  America.  Australia  is 
remarkable  for  its  small  streams  and  the  periodicity  of  their 
flow,  a  few  only  like  the  Murray  being  navigable  at  all  times. 

The  commerce  of  the  United  States  is  rapidly  extending  in 
Asia,  and  it  was  a  piece  of  special  good  fortune  that  the  war 
with  Spain  should  carry  us  at  once  where  conquest  would 
prove  of  the  greatest  service.  The  states  of  the  Pacific  are 
now  in  position  to  compete  with  the  world  for  industrial  su- 
premacy. On  the  north  Asiatic  coast,  and  along  the  shores 
of  the  two  Americas,  all  except  the  tropical  part,  might  be 
set  up  wheat  granaries. 

Still  following  in  the  wake  of  that  basest  of  discoverers, 
the  swineherd  Pizarro,  we  will  look  along  the  southern  coast, 
then  turning  to  Panama  follow  the  seaboard  northward  from 
where  we  left  Gil  Gonzalez  and  Cortes. 

Panama  was  once  the  richest  city  in  America,  and  next  to 
Cartagena  the  most  strongly  fortified,  the  walls  being  in  places 
60  feet  wide  and  40  feet  high.  These  walls,  and  the  massive 
granite  ramparts  of  a  new  fortress,  were  erected  just  after 
the  capture  of  old  Panama,  which  was  six  miles  distant  from 
the  site  of  the  present  city,  by  the  pirate  Morgan,  who,  in  1671, 
after  three  weeks  of  horrible  atrocities  perpetrated  upon  the 
defenceless  inhabitants,  burned  the  city,  carrying  away  175 
mule  loads  of  plunder  from  private  persons,  government,  and 
churches,  and  600  prisoners.  So  complete  was  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  ancient  city,  with  its  cathedral,  its  monasteries, 
hospitals,  200  richly  furnished  Moorish  houses,  and  5,000  or- 
dinary dwellings,  and  which  had  been  up  to  that  time  the 
entrepot  for  the  products  of  the  Spice  islands,  and  the  gold 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN  AND  ITS   BORDERS     163 

and  silver  of  Peru,  that  it  was  never  rebuilt  on  that  spot,  but 
was  abandoned  for  other  ground, — this,  and  because  of  the 
unwholesome  site.  Panama  is  a  free  port,  and  exports  gold- 
dust,  tobacco,  hides,  india-rubber,  manganese,  shells,  vanilla, 
sarsaparilla,  whale-oil,  and  cocoa-nuts.  At  the  Pearl  islands, 
off  the  bay  of  Panama,  the  pearl  fisheries  continue  as  in  the 
days  of  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa,  though  in  lesser  degree.  The 
Panama  railroad,  48  miles  in  length,  built  in  1850-4,  was  the 
first  to  span  the  continent.  After  this  followed  the  Central 
and  Union  Pacific;  the  Southern  Pacific;  the  Northern  Pa- 
cific, and  others  in  Canada,  Mexico,  and  Central  and  South 
America. 

Peru  extends  from  latitude  19°  10'  south  nearly  to  the 
equator,  and  with  Ecuador  and  Colombia  reaches  the  isthmus 
of  Panama.  The  prevailing  wind  is  from  the  south.  The 
absence  of  rain  is  owing  to  the  influence  of  the  snowy  moun- 
tain tops  on  the  southeast  trade  winds  from  the  Atlantic, 
which  wring  from  it  all  moisture,  leaving  it  thus  arid  to  de- 
scend the  western  slope  to  the  warmer  regions  below.  There 
are  three  distinct  longitudinal  zones,  the  coast,  the  sierra,  and 
the  montana,  the  first  lying  between  the  ocean  and  the  mari- 
time cordillera,  mostly  a  sandy  desert  twenty  miles  wide,  and 
crossed  by  rivers  flowing  through  fertile  valleys;  the  second, 
250  miles  wide,  in  which  stands  the  Andean  chain,  with  its 
high  plateaus  and  warm  fertile  ravines,  the  home  of  the 
potato,  the  abode  of  the  vicuna  and  the  alpaca,  and  rich  in 
metals;  the  third,  the  eastern  slope  and  valley  of  the  Amazon, 
covered  with  dense  tropical  forests.  Nature  in  the  sierra, 
which  is  the  heart  of  Peru,  is  on  a  stupendous  scale,  where 
within  short  distances  appears  every  variety  of  scenery  and 
climate,  from  tropical  to  alpine. 

Monumental  remains  in  South  America  show  a  high  aborig- 
inal civilization,  as  the  cyclopean  stone  edifices  at  Tiahuanacu 
in  Bolivia,  the  huge  structures  of  carved  stone  at  Cuzco,  in 
Peru,  and  the  ruins  at  Vilcamayu,  Titicaca  and  Coati  islands, 
Chiru,  and  elsewhere.  Besides  buildings,  the  vast  reservoirs 
for  the  storage  of  water  and  the  expensive  systems  of  irriga- 
tion are  among  the  grandest  monuments  of  the  old  Peruvians. 
The  resources  and  commerce  of  the  ancient  Peruvians  were 
rich  and  extensive,  silver  gold  and  copper,  vicuna  and  alpaca, 
maize  and  cocoa,  potatoes  and  quinuas,  medicinal  plants,  cot- 


164  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

ton  and  maguey  fibre,  fruit  vegetables  and  guano  being  con- 
spicuous. To  these  native  products  the  Spaniards  added 
horses,  asses,  cattle,  swine,  goats,  and  sheep,  which  rapidly 
increased  and  overspread  the  land.  Bullocks  were  yoked  to 
the  plow  on  the  plain  of  Cuzco  in  1550,  and  in  1554  a  Spanish 
cavalier  turned  stock-raiser,  buying  ten  cows  at  Lima  for 
$1,000.  Sheep  were  introduced  from  Europe  in  1556;  and 
also  about  that  time  wheat  barley  and  grapes  from  the  Canary 
islands;  oranges  figs  and  pomegranates,  peaches  apples  pears 
and  quinces.  The  first  sugarcane  was  grown  at  Huanuco;  all 
the  European  vegetables  were  growing  in  Peru  prior  to  1560. 
In  the  coast  valleys  cotton  is  indigenous.  In  the  montana 
the  missions  founded  by  the  Franciscans  grew  into  settlements 
as  in  Mexico,  Texas,  and  California. 

The  public  works  of  Peru,  ancient  and  modern,  are  by  no 
means  insignificant.  Aside  from  such  structures  as  the  tem- 
ples of  the  Sun,  the  temple  of  Cacha,  the  fortresses  and  palaces 
of  Cuzco,  Vilcamayu,  and  Titicaca,  and  the  reservoirs,  aque- 
ducts, canals,  roads,  and  bridges  of  the  ancients,  there  are  the 
government  buildings,  the  cathedrals,  monasteries,  hospitals, 
railways,  and  boulevards  of  modern  times  equal  to  any  upon 
the  shores  of  the  ocean.  The  wealth  which  Peru  is  now  giving 
to  the  world  is  mainly  the  product  from  the  growth  and  man- 
ufacture of  sugar  and  cotton,  with  the  cultivation  also  for 
commercial  purposes  of  wheat,  corn,  grapes,  and  alfalfa  for 
stock-grazing.  These  and  the  mines;  the  barren  deserts  and 
rocky  islands  even  largely  contributing,  the  former  in  various 
salts  and  the  latter  in  guano. 

Paita  has  a  good  harbor,  which  was  once  the  resort  of 
whalers.  Considerable  cotton,  grown  in  the  interior,  is  shipped 
from  this  port,  much  of  it  to  Mexico,  and  some  to  Europe. 
Wood  and  water  once  were  scarce,  and  were  brought  in  by 
burros,  and  sold,  the  former  at  two  reales  per  cargo  of  24 
sticks,  and  the  latter  at  four  reales  for  20  gallons.  Tumbez, 
the  town  of  Peruvian  antiquity  and  civilization,  is  built  largely 
of  bamboo,  on  account  of  the  abundance  of  that  material,  and 
notwithstanding  the  presence  not  far  distant  of  mighty  ruins, 
and  example  of  such  structures  as  the  temple  of  the  Sun. 
Trujillo  was  founded  by  Pizarro  in  1535,  and  has  now  a  popu- 
lation of  about  15,000.  An  oval  adobe  wall  with  fifteen  bas- 
tions, built  by  the  duke  of  Palata,  viceroy,  encircled  the  city 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     165 

in  1686,  and  was  the  only  walled  town  in  Peru  except  Lima. 
Squier  found  the  best  hotel  in  Trujillo  kept  by  an  association 
of  Chinamen,  each  having  his  special  work,  and  all  perform- 
ing their  duties  with  the  best  results.  They  had  burned  their 
ships,  that  is  cut  off  their  queues,  and  one  of  them  had  mar- 
ried a  native  of  the  country. 

The  chief  port  and  capital  of  Peru,  Callao,  eight  miles  from 
Lima,  where  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation  company  have  their 
works,  affords  fair  anchorage  and  outfitting  accommodations. 
There  is  a  floating  dock,  harbor  works,  forts,  government  of- 
fices, hospitals,  shops,  and  banks.  French  and  German  steam 
lines  have  also  quarters  there.  Callao  exports  silver,  gold, 
sugar,  cotton,  wool,  and  hides.  Callao  harbor,  the  commercial 
gateway  of  Peru,  is  a  circular  basin,  six  miles  in  diameter  and 
of  good  depth.  Adobe  and  stone  houses  of  one  or  two  stories, 
bordering  streets  twenty  feet  wide  paved  with  cobble  stones, 
with  churches  and  public  buildings  constitute  the  city.  A 
railway  connects  this  port  with  Lima,  the  capital,  built  upon 
the  model  of  all  Spanish- American  cities,  with  plaza,  alameda, 
cathedral,  public  buildings,  and  dwellings  with  low  roofs  and 
thick  walls.  The  more  pretentious  residences  occupy  a  square, 
with  a  patio  in  the  centre.  Any  where  else  Callao  would  be 
but  a  poor  harbor,  but  as  the  only  winds  here  are  from  the 
south  and  southwest,  the  island  of  San  Lorenzo,  and  the  pro- 
jection of  land  marking  the  site  of  old  Callao,  suffice  for 
protection. 

Lima,  the  city  of  the  kings,  as  it  was  christened  by  Pizarro 
when  he  made  it  the  capital  of  his  conquered  domain  in 
1535,  was  for  a  time  the  haughtiest,  as  well  as  the  most 
luxurious  and  profligate  of  all  the  viceregal  courts.  The 
church  and  the  inquisition  flamed  brightly  here,  as  no  where 
else  in  America,  the  cathedral  rivalling  in  costly  adornments 
the  sacred  edifices  of  Europe,  and  even  the  old  Peruvian  tem- 
ple of  the  Sun.  Lima  is  a  city  of  many  institutions  and  much 
culture.  There  are  churches  and  colleges,  museums  and  libra- 
ries, military  and  naval  institutes,  hospitals  and  halls  of  legis- 
lation. The  city  has  a  botanical  and  a  zoological  garden;  a 
panteon,  or  general  cemetery,  where  the  dead  rest  in  mural 
niches,  of  which  there  are  many  thousands  prepared.  The 
houses,  built  on  the  usual  Spanish-American  plan,  with  flat 
roof  and  inner  court,  are  elegant,  and  the  women  beautiful. 


166  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

An  ecclesiastic  city,  it  has  ever  been  aristocratic.  In  1873 
many  house-walls  were  demolished  to  make  room  for  trees 
and  boulevards.  The  old  plaza  of  the  Inquisition  became  the 
plaza  de  la  Independencia,  and  what  was  University  chapel 
became  the  legislative  hall  of  the  chamber  of  deputies,  the 
senate  occupying  the  old  tribunal  hall  of  the  Inquisition. 
With  wealth  and  aristocracy  presently  came  nobility,  29  Peru- 
vian noblemen  being  created  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
54  in  the  eighteenth;  so  that  when  independence  and  republi- 
canism came  there  were  no  less  than  46  American  marquises, 
35  counts,  one  viscount,  and  one  duke. 

Every  afternoon  about  five  o'clock,  particularly  on  Sundays 
and  Thursdays,  the  beauty  and  fashion  of  Spanish  America 
are  seen  displayed  in  the  drives  and  promenades  of  all  the 
cities.  Wealth  is  there,  and  likewise  poverty  in  the  garb  of 
wealth;  for  these  people  love  to  make  a  display,  and  will 
starve  themselves  six  days  in  the  week  to  sport  a  gaudy  garb 
on  the  seventh.  Some  of  the  equipages  are  equal  to  any  in 
Hyde  park;  blooded  horses  in  harness  of  silver  and  gold, 
with  elegant  carriages  and  liveried  coachmen  and  footmen. 

Cuzco,  the  city  of  the  Sun,  and  seat  of  the  Peruvian  empire, 
is  situated  in  one  of  a  cluster  of  valleys  11,380  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  Wheat,  corn,  barley,  and  potatoes  grow 
there,  but  twenty  miles  distant  are  deep  hot  gorges  where 
thrive  semi-tropical  fruits.  The  splendid  highways  of  the 
incas  radiated  thence  in  various  directions,  the  ruins  of  which 
are  now  seen,  as  well  as  those  of  temple  edifices,  ancient  smelt- 
ing-works,  bridges,  baths,  and  aqueducts  on  arches.  Under 
the  Peruvians,  Cuzco  was  connected  with  Quito,  now  the 
capital  of  Ecuador,  by  a  paved  highway,  portions  of  which  still 
remain.  Quito  stands  9,520  feet  above  sea  level,  and  consists 
mostly  of  one-story  adobe  houses.  Among  the  notable  places 
in  the  Andes  of  Peru  under  the  old  regime  were  Tiahuanuco, 
the  centre  of  Peruvian  civilization  and  the  Baalbec  of  America, 
and  Titicaca,  the  sacred  island  and  lake. 

The  war  between  the  republics  of  Peru  and  Chili  in  1879 
to  1882  was  wholly  uncalled  for,  and  productive  of  no  good 
results.  It  was  over  a  question  of  boundary  regarding  territory 
to  whose  inhabitants  it  made  no  difference  to  which  common- 
wealth it  might  be  said  they  belonged.  However,  men  and 
dogs  will  fight  for  even  less  issues  than  this,  and  indeed  for 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN  AND  ITS   BORDEKS     167 

no  issue  at  all.  Peru  was  badly  beaten,  and  long  remained 
prostrate  under  the  heel  of  the  conqueror.  Large  sums  of 
money  were  extorted  from  the  private  citizens  of  Lima, 
many  of  whom  were  imprisoned  or  transported  to  Chili  for 
refusal  to  pay.  Besides  thousands  of  lives  and  millions  of 
money,  the  "Peruvians  lost  the  guano  and  nitrate  trade,  and 
the  war  vessels  Huascar  and  Independencia.  But  all  this  is 
nothing  for  a  country  whose  mountains  are  of  metal,  whose 
sands  are  of  precious  salts,  and  whose  soil  and  sterile  rocks 
even  supply  so  profusely  so  much  of  what  all  the  world  wants. 
Two  or  three  hundred  millions  of  dollars  have  been  invested 
in  Peru  in  railways,  mostly  by  the  government,  the  ties  com- 
ing from  the  United  States  and  the  rails  from  England.  Sil- 
ver mines  are  worked  all  along  the  Peruvian  cordillera,  Ceiro 
Pasco  being  an  important  point,  1,500,000  ounces  being  some- 
times annually  there  produced. 

Upper  Peru  in  1825  became  Bolivia,  a  lofty  isolated  region, 
including  the  old  province  of  Charcas  and  half  of  the  basin 
of  Lake  Titicaca.  Here  also  are  the  gold  mines  of  Tipuani 
and  the  silver  mines  of  Potosi.  Bolivia  has  two  outlets  for 
her  products,  the  one  a  long  land  transit  to  the  port  of  Arica 
attended  by  heavy  dues,  and  the  other  over  a  still  longer  road 
.to  Buenos  Ayres.  Yet  the  best  coffee  and  chocolate  in  the 
world  are  grown  here,  and  chinchona  bark  rich  in  quinine. 

Chili  is  a  strip  of  seaboard  from  40  to  200  miles  wide,  run- 
ning northward  from  Cape  Horn  2,270  miles.  There  are 
many  passes  over  the  cordillera  into  Argentina,  the  highest 
being  the  Dona  Ana,  whose  altitude  is  14,770  feet.  The  larg- 
est lake,  the  Llanquihue,  22  by  30  miles,  is  197  feet  above 
the  sea;  and  the  largest  river,  the  Biobio,  220  miles  long 
and  navigable  for  100  miles.  Chili  abounds  in  mineral  waters, 
and  has  some  fine  wooded  islands.  Timber  is  the  principal 
product  of  the  south,  but  grain  flax  and  potatoes  are  also  ex- 
ported thence,  while  from  the  north  figs,  olives,  peaches, 
grapes,  and  maize  are  sent  abroad.  The  Chilian  Andes  pre- 
sent an  imposing  sight,  with  their  clear  white  summits  over- 
looking the  variegated  green  of  the  valleys,  while  beyond 
is  the  blue  ocean.  The  transandean  railway  and  telegraph 
route  connecting  Chili  and  Argentina  is  through  the  Uspalata 
pass,  13,000  feet  high. 

The  Araucanians  who  once  occupied  the  greater  part  of 


168  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

Chili,  and  who  so  bravely  fought  the  invaders,  attacking 
Spanish  cities  and  destroying  Spanish  forts,  killing  Pedro 
Valdivia,  founder  of  Santiago,  still  preserve  their  national 
identity  as  well  as  their  hatred  of  Spaniards.  Driven  south- 
ward during  the  three  centuries  of  Spanish  rule,  the  remain- 
ing 50,000  inhabitants  affect  some  degree  of  civilization,  own- 
ing lands  through  which  runs  a  government  railroad. 

Valparaiso,  the  chief  city  of  Chili,  is  one  of  the  prominent 
ports  of  the  Pacific,  and  has  always  been  conspicuous  in  com- 
merce. It  was  founded  by  Juan  de  Saavedra  in  1536,  and 
captured  by  Drake  in  1578,  and  again  by  Hawkins  in  1596. 
After  pirates  came  earthquakes,  giving  the  place  other  severe 
shakings  up,  and  in  1866  it  was  bombarded  by  a  Spanish 
fleet,  which  demolished  once  more  a  large  part  of  the  city. 
And  yet  it  lives,  and  has  its  forts,  and  government  palace,  and 
warehouses,  and  hospitals,  and  theatres,  naval  academy,  and 
many  industrial  establishments,  among  which  are  railway 
shops,  sugar  refinery,  and  wagon  works.  Valparaiso  takes  its 
form  from  a  crescent-shaped  harbor,  with  a  background  of 
hills,  some  of  which  are  terraced  and  adorned  with  residences. 
The  population  which  in  1820  numbered  5,000,  in  1860  had 
reached  80,000.  Many  of  these  are  foreigners,  the  profes- 
sional and  business  men  of  the  higher  grade  being  mostly 
English,  Americans,  French,  and  Germans. 

Santiago,  the  capital  of  Chili,  cut  in  twain  by  the  river 
Mapocho,  has  many  fine  buildings  with  picturesque  surround- 
ings. In  the  soft  air  of  evening  the  wealth  and  fashion  of 
Chili  congregate  in  the  plaza  de  la  Independencia,  a  common 
name  for  the  principal  square  in  these  republics,  and  here 
filled  with  foliage  and  statuary.  Government,  educational, 
and  benevolent  institutions  abound,  and  patriotism  and  prog- 
ress predominate.  The  houses  are  mostly  of  one  story,  and 
cover  seven  square  miles  of  ground.  Santiago  has  an  astro- 
nomical observatory  and  mint. 

Tongoy  is  a  small  port  serving  the  coasting  trade,  and  sup- 
plying the  rich  copper  mines  of  Tamaya.  Talcahuano  has  a 
fine  harbor  and  a  flourishing  agricultural  trade,  with  good 
coal  near  by.  Coronel  and  Lota  mark  a  large  coal  district. 
Valdivia  has  a  good  harbor,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  fertile  ag- 
ricultural country.  A  colony  of  Germans  was  some  time  ago 
established  there.  Caldera  has  a  good  bay  with  a  long  pier 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     169 

and  every  facility  for  shipping.  There  are  the  Copiapo  and 
other  railways  to  rich  silver  districts.  Huasco,  though  only 
an  open  roadstead,  is  a  port  of  entry.  It  exports  copper  ore 
and  supplies  the  mines  of  Atacaraa.  Coquimbo  is  a  fairly 
good  port,  with  the  advantage  of  the  Serena  railway. 

An  important  point  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  South  Amer- 
ica is  Concepcion,  eight  miles  from  the  fine  harbor  of  Tal- 
cahuano.  Half  a  dozen  lines  of  foreign  steamers  call  here 
regularly;  there  is  a  good  naval  dry  dock,  and  every  accom- 
modation for  refitting  and  coaling.  It  is  the  centre  of  the 
Chilian  coal  region,  and  screenings  from  the  mines  for  gen- 
crating  electricity  can  be  bought  for  35  cents  a  ton  American 
money.  Not  far  distant  are  rich  copper  mines,  which  only 
require  capital  for  profitable  development.  English  com- 
panies cover  a  good  part  of  the  nitrate  fields  with  an  aggregate 
capital  of  $100,000,000. 

Chili  has  1,300  miles  of  government  railways,  1,000  miles 
of  private  lines,  owned  chiefly  by  the  English,  25,000  miles  of 
public  roads,  and  2,875  miles  of  waterway.  Steamship  com- 
munication is  regular  and  direct  along  the  Pacific  coast  from 
Valparaiso  to  Panama,  where  connection  is  made  to  New 
York,  Liverpool,  Central  America,  Mexico,  and.  California; 
and  also  by  steamers  and  sailing  vessel  via  Magellan  strait  to 
the  eastern  American  coast  and  Europe. 

Along  this  stretch  of  Pacific  American  seaboard  is  a  variety 
of  aboriginal  humanity,  with  decided  differences,  yet  exclu- 
sive and  enough  alike  to  mark  them  different  from  all  the  rest 
of  the  world.  There  are  the  big-headed  giants  of  Patagonia, 
who  hunt  the  ostrich  with  a  sling;  the  Araucanians,  and  other 
intelligent  and  war-loving  tribes  of  Chili,  who  assume  su- 
periority and  delight  in  drunkenness;  the  truly  cultivated 
Peruvians,  with  all  the  paraphernalia  of  civilization  and  the 
only  American  domesticated  animal;  the  dark-skinned  naked 
inhabitants  of  the  malarious  seaboard  of  the  Mayas  and 
Nahuas  of  civilized  Central  America  and  Mexico;  the  house- 
less root-diggers  and  vermin-eaters  of  California;  the  nobler 
Chinooks  and  Haidahs  of  Oregon  and  British  Columbia;  and 
the  cunning  Aleuts. 

Doubtless  some  day  Alaska  and  Patagonia  will  be  connected 
by  coast  line  railway  and  telegraph  along  the  Pacific,  part  of 
the  distance  being  already  accomplished.  So  on  the  Asiatic 


170  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

side,  which  in  the  race  for  development  will  not  be  far  behind 
the  American.  Nearly  a  decade  ago  an  intercontinental  rail- 
way commission  was  organized,  twelve  republics  being  repre- 
sented, to  examine  and  report  on  the  feasibility  of  connecting 
North  and  South  America  by  rail.  The  report  cf  the  com- 
missioners advocated  a  road  from  New  York  to  Buenos  Ayres, 
10,228  miles  in  length. 

As  Hammerfest,  in  Norway,  is  the  northernmost  town  in 
the  world,  so  Punta  Arenas,  on  the  site  of  the  old  Spanish 
colony  in  the  strait  of  Magellan,  is  the  most  southern.  Situ- 
ated opposite  Tierra  del  Fuego,  and  environed  by  mossy  plains 
and  low  hills  covered  with  stunted  trees,  Punta  Arenas  pre- 
sents by  no  means  a  pleasing  picture.  The  place  was  founded 
in  1843  as  a  penal  settlement  of  the  Chilian  government.  The 
houses  are  of  one  story,  standing  irregularly,  and  in  the  harbor 
are  usually  a  fleet  of  coal  ships,  this  being  the  leading  in- 
dustry. It  is  no  longer  the  official  rendezvous  of  criminals. 

The  region  round  Cape  Horn  is  not  a  thickly  inhabited  por- 
tion of  the  world,  the  nearest  neighboring  tc^n  to  Punta  Are- 
nas being  2,000  miles  away  on  either  side.  Representatives 
from  the  world's  refuse  of  population  seem  to  h&ve  drifted  in 
and  lodged  here,  almost  every  type  of  humanity,  and  every  lan- 
guage, being  seen  and  spoken, — wrecked  seamen  and  wander- 
ing Jews,  convicts  and  men  of  commerce,  all  of  every  shade 
of  color  and  every  nationality.  For  sale  here,  besides  coal 
gold-dust  and  silver  ores,  are  native  goods,  turtle-shells,  snake- 
skins,  sea-lions'  tusks,  armadillo  tails,  ostrich  and  seal  skins, 
and  rugs  made  from  the  soft  downy  breast  of  young  ostriches, 
the  plumes  adorning  them  being  plucked  from  the  wings  and 
tail  of  the  live  bird. 

Nor  is  the  great  island  of  Tierra  del  Fuego  the  altogether 
cold  and  barren  land  of  desolation  one  might  imagine.  It  is 
true  that  snow  rests  perpetually  on  the  higher  peaks,  but 
there  are  fertile  valleys  and  grassy  plains,  mountains  lakes 
and  rivers  affording  beautiful  scenery,  and  a  climate  far  less 
rigorous  in  the  main  than  that  of  northern  Canada.  But  the 
savages  who  call  this  place  home — better  leave  them  unhon- 
ored  and  unsung.  Yet  they  are  no  worse  than  the  Fijians  and 
Tahitans,  or  even  than  the  dusky  denizens  of  fair  California. 

Back  to  the  Isthmus,  as  before  said.  The  Panama  railway 
had  been  fifteen  years  in  operation  when  it  was  said  of  it  that 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND  ITS   BORDERS     171 

there  was  no  work  of  ancient  or  modern  times  which  had 
accomplished  so  much  in  so  short  a  time,  and  which  still 
promised  such  great  benefits  to  the  commercial  world.  Con- 
necting with  it,  on  both  oceans,  were  lines  of  steamers  which 
with  their  connections  reached  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 
Besides  the  Panama  railway,  both  Americans  and  English 
have  several  short  lines  in  Colombia,  the  latter  being  from 
Santa  Marta  to  Savilla;  the  Dorado,  from  Yeguas  to  Honda; 
the  government  also  own  and  operate  railways.  On  the 
Magdalena  river  and  its  tributaries  are  a  score  of  small  steam- 
boats operated  by  various  companies. 

The  so-called  republics  of  Central  and  South  America  are 
in  reality  governed  by  no  one;  rulers  and  people  alike  are 
given  up  to  revolution  and  anarchy,  the  dominating  influence 
of  the  land  really  emanating  from  a  few  foreigners,  coffee- 
growers,  merchants,  bankers,  and  transportation  officials.  A 
republican  form  of  government  is  suited  only  to  a  people  of 
advanced  intelligence  and  integrity.  The  fundamental  idea 
is  a  government  by  the  people,  and  if  the  people  are  ignorant 
and  debased  a  nominal  republic  is  worse  for  them  than  pure 
despotism.  The  governments  of  Spanish  America  are  no 
more  republics  than  are  the  black  republics  of  the  West 
Indies  and  Africa.  They  lack  the  first  principles  of  repub- 
licanism, a  strong  self-contained,  and  progressive  people. 
With  admirable  codes  and  constitutions  they  are  totally  de- 
void of  political  morals  and  official  honesty.  Corruption  in 
public  affairs  is  the  rule,  and  their  commercial  ethics  are 
not  much  better.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  inexorable  laws  of 
progress  will  in  the  end  prevail.  Every  people  must  either 
advance  or  fall  backward,  and  where  people  of  low  develop- 
ment, whether  African  or  European,  whether  Asiatic  or 
American,  continue  for  any  considerable  time  to  decline,  they 
are  certain  in  the  end  to  be  swallowed  up  by  some  stronger 
race. 

Many  times  the  Central  American  republics  have  attempted 
federation,  but  have  failed,  owing  to  selfishness  and  jealousy, 
and  lacking  the  political  consistency  to  hold  together.  The 
more  immediate  impediment,  after  the  solution  of  the  great 
question,  Who  shall  rule?  has  been  the  collection  and  dis- 
position of  duties,  Salvador  claiming  that  with  one-fourth  the 
area  of  either,  her  imports  and  exports  exceeded  those  of  Hon- 


duras  and  Nicaragua  combined.  When  those  who  would  rule 
have  grown  up  to  the  occasion,  the  Greater  Eepublic  of  Cen- 
tral America  will  be  an  accomplished  fact,  provided  in  the 
mean  time  the  hand  of  the  United  States  does  not  appear  in 
their  affairs.  Canals  at  Panama  and  Nicaragua  require  con- 
struction and  will  demand  protection.  One  of  the  several 
births  of  the  new  republic,  the  United  States  of  Central 
America,  took  place  on  the  1st  of  November,  1898,  when  the 
republics  of  Nicaragua,  Honduras,  and  Salvador  disappeared, 
and  a  new  map  was  required  for  the  middle  America.  The 
new  republic  had  an  area  of  110,000  square  miles,  and  a  popu- 
lation of  2,000,000.  Its  industrial  advantages  were  great. 
Centrally  situated,  with  a  good  soil  and  good  interior  climate, 
a  long  stretch  of  seaboard  on  both  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific, 
and  the  site  of  the  canal  through  which  will  pass  the  world's 
western  commerce,  a  great  future  is  assured.  In  due  time 
Guatemala  and  Costa  Eica  might  perhaps  find  it  to  their  in- 
terest to  join  a  federation.  Amapala  was  the  present,  and  per- 
haps would  be  the  permanent  capital.  The  constitution  was 
modelled  on  that  of  the  United  States  of  America,  a  president 
elected  for  four  years,  who  was  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army  and  navy,  a  congress  of  two  houses,  the  senate  consist- 
ing of  six  senators  from  each  of  the  three  states,  and  three 
from  the  federal  district,  and  a  house  of  representatives  hav- 
ing one  representative  for  every  30,000  inhabitants.  Then 
as  usual  it  collapsed. 

The  interior  of  Central  America  is  picturesque,  while 
nature  there  is  charming,  but  the  people  are  not  in  keeping 
with  the  country.  Mexico  is  slowly  becoming  somewhat  civil- 
ized, and  may  in  time  even  become  republican,  but  as  for  the 
rest  of  Spanish  America,  with  the  large  native  and  mixed 
populations,  the  tendency  is  downward  rather  than  upward. 
Guatemala,  Honduras,  and  Tehuantepec  have  or  soon  will 
have  each  a  railway  from  sea  to  sea.  The  bay  of  Fonseca,  on 
which  Salvador  Honduras  and  Nicaragua  all  have  frontage, 
is  highly  important  as  a  commercial  port. 

Nicaragua  is  a  beautiful  bit  of  earth,  and  in  proper  hands 
would  become  a  garden,  healthful  though  tropical.  But  ever 
since  it  has  been  free  from  the  tyranny  of  Spain  it  has  been 
subject  to  a  worse  tyranny,  the  tyranny  of  chronic  revolu- 
tion, the  kind  of  tyranny  that  Aguinaldo  would,  if  he  could, 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND  ITS   BORDERS     173 

inflict  on  the  Filipinos.  Walker,  who  went  with  a  handful 
of  California  adventurers  in  1852  to  rule  this  fair  land,  was 
a  filibuster,  as  Maximilian  of  Austria,  who  with  French 
soldiers  went  to  rule  Mexico,  was  a  filibuster;  they  both  died 
for  their  adopted  country,  as  let  us  hope  Aguinaldo  will  some 
day  depart,  he  who  has  caused  thousands  of  others  to  die  for 
the  gratification  of  his  base  ambition.  Back  of  these  were  the 
filibusters  from  Spain,  who  took  the  country  from  the  natives 
three  or  four  hundred  years  ago,  and  held  it  because  they  were 
the  stronger.  But  whether  held  for  chronic  revolution  by 
sons  of  the  soil,  or  for  a  ship  canal  by  a  Chicago  syndicate, 
or  by  the  United  States  whose  congress  has  been  playing  with 
the  subject  through  the  century,  and  can  do  nothing  even  now 
when  it  really  desires  a  canal  because  the  railway  men  and 
politicians  are  greater  than  the  United  States,  Nicaragua  is  a 
beautiful  and  healthful  country. 

On  a  large  fresh-water  sea  stood  Nicaragua's  town  in  the 
days  of  old,  and  there  Gil  Gonzalez  found  the  chief,  and  gave 
him  two  good  things,  Christianity  and  death.  This  town  was 
but  three  leagues  from  the  South  sea,  and  the  water  on  which 
it  stood  was  connected  with  the  waters  of  the  North  sea  by  a 
river,  which  afforded  easy  transit;  so  the  chief  Nicaragua  in- 
formed the  Spanish  captain  Gil  Gonzalez,  who  like  Vasco 
Nunez  had  essayed  the  passage  of  the  Isthmus  from  Darien, 
building  boats  on  the  mountains  for  use  in  the  South  sea. 

The  fine  woods  of  this  section  are  extensive  and  valuable. 
One  dollar  a  log  used  to  be  paid  for  the  privilege  of  cutting 
rosewood,  mahogany,  and  cedar,  but  now  districts  are  marked 
off  and  concessions  given  for  a  consideration.  The  Nicara- 
guans  must  make  what  they  can  of  what  nature  has  done  for 
them,  as  they  seem  inclined  to  do  but  little  for  themselves. 
The  old  chief  who  dwelt  by  the  lake,  were  he  living  now, 
might  do  well  with  some  American  or  European  syndicate  in 
disposing  of  his  aboriginal  property  rights. 

The  inhabitants  of  Nicaragua  are  mostly  half-breed  Indians 
and  negroes,  or  rather  a.  mixture  of  Indian,  negro,  and  Span- 
ish blood  in  nearly  every  individual,  except  the  few  foreign- 
ers. Amapala,  the  Pacific  port  of  Honduras,  receives  the 
trade  of  the  Atlantic  as  well  as  of  the  Pacific.  Honduras  as 
seen  from  the  Pacific  presents  a  wall  of  mountains  whose  tops 
bristle  with  volcanic  peaks.  From  this  mountain  rampart 


THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

flow  several  rivers;  the  largest,  the  Ulna,  is  navigable.  These 
mountains  are  veined  with  silver,  Olancho  being  the  place 
for  gold  washings. 

The  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  a  tropical  garden,  has  long 
been  conspicuous  in  connection  with  interoceanic  communi- 
cation, projected  railways,  ship  canal,  and  ship  railroad. 
Acapulco  is  the  best  Mexican  port  on  the  Pacific,  being  so 
land-locked  as  to  be  scarcely  discernible  from  the  sea;  but  for 
a  town  site  it  is  a  wretched  place,  being  a  basin  surrounded  by 
mountains  which  prevent  circulation  of  air,  and  therefore  hot 
and  unhealthy.  This  little  indentation,  where  ships  can  be 
moored  close  to  the  surrounding  rocks  if  necessary,  was,  as 
we  shall  see  later,  for  a  long  time  prior  to  the  independence, 
the  great  depot  of  Spain  on  the  Pacific  for  East  Indian  trade, 
a  galleon  sailing  once  every  year  to  the  Philippine  islands, 
and  returning  laden  with  the  products  and  treasures  of  the 
East.  On  the  arrival  here  of  the  annual  ship  from  Manila,  a 
great  fair  was  held,  to  which  buyers  resorted  from  all  parts 
of  Mexico.  The  California  gold  steamers  to  Panama  used 
also  to  stop  here  going  and  returning.  Though  sunk  to  in- 
significance, Acapulco  still  exports  wool,  hides,  cocoa,  cochi- 
neal, and  indigo. 

Mazatlan  is  a  thriving  port,  and  the  distributing  point  for 
a  large  area  of  western  Mexico.  Business  is  reported  always 
good,  failures  rare,  and  industrially  the  place  is  steadily  pro- 
gressing. The  new  Eio  Grande,  Sierra  Madre,  and  Pacific 
railroad  traverses  an  extensive  cattle  country  tributary  to  the 
Yaqui  gold  fields.  Besides  ores  and  cattle  for  export,  the 
country  supplies  lumber  for  local  use,  the  greater  part  of 
which  is  consumed  by  the  10,000  Mormons  settled  along  the 
line.  The  silver  ore,  which  should  be  smelted  on  the  coast 
is  taken  to  reduction  works  at  El  Paso. 

Mexico  is  a  high  plateau  rimmed  by  the  two  sierras  into 
which  the  continental  range  splits  as  it  enters  the  tropics  on 
its  way  southward  from  Alaska.  On  either  side  of  this  tierra 
templada  are  the  low  malarial  tierras  calientes.  The  uplands 
are  dry,  and  fertile  only  in  places;  the  lowlands  are  wet,  and 
covered  with  redundant  vegetation.  Minerals  and  metals  are 
every  where,  the  belt  from  Sonora  and  Chihuahua  to  Durango, 
Zacatecas,  Guanajuato,  and  Oajaca  being  probably  the  richest 
argentiferous  region  in  the  world.  And  if  the  united  sierra 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     175 

be  followed  up  into  the  valley  of  Alta  California,  there  will 
be  found  one  of  the  richest  of  auriferous  regions. 

High  in  air  from  the  Mexican  plateau  rise  Popocatepetl, 
Ixtaccihuatl,  and  other  volcanic  peaks.  Besides  much  fertile 
soil  and  vast  mineral  wealth,  indigenous  to  Mexico  are  114 
species  of  trees,  many  of  them  yielding  the  most  beautiful 
cabinet  woods;  there  are  also  60  medicinal  plants  and  dye- 
woods,  and  17  oil-bearing  plants.  Among  the  trees  and  plants 
of  commerce  are  rosewood,  mahogany,  indiarubber,  copal,  sar- 
saparilla,  vanilla,  and  jalap.  Then  there  is  maize,  likewise 
indigenous,  of  which  the  soil  yields  in  places  four  crops  a 
year  of  from  200  to  400  fold;  also  grown  there  are  coffee  cot- 
ton rice  indigo  and  tobacco,  beans  sugar  cocoa  and  bananas, 
the  maguey,  mango,  and  many  other  products.  There  are 
wild  animals  in  the  woods,  wild  fowl  on  the  lakes,  and  alliga- 
tors in  the  rivers,  while  along  the  seashore  are  fish  and  turtles, 
and  pearl  fisheries  in  the  California  gulf. 

The  city  of  Mexico  belongs  equally  to  the  Atlantic  and  Pa- 
cific, and  is  the  most  wealthy  and  beautiful  metropolis  in 
Spanish  America.  Round  the  historic  zocola  cluster  the 
legends  of  the  centuries,  Aztec  and  European.  Near  where 
is  now  the  great  cathedral,  once  stood  the  temple  of  the  war 
god  Huitzilopochtli,  who  delighted  in  human  sacrifices;  while 
across  the  plaza,  where  now  is  the  government  palace,  stood 
the  palace  of  Montezuma  in  all  its  native  splendor. 

The  peninsula  of  Lower  California  consists  of  broad  plains 
interspersed  with  mountains,  on  some  of  which  are  forests 
and  good  grazing,  and  sandy  areas  productive  when  watered. 
Placer  gold  is  found  at  Real  del  Castillo;  at  Ensenada  and 
elsewhere  are  colonization  societies.  Other  parts  of  the  pen- 
insula are  rich  in  minerals,  and  there  are  large  tracts  suitable 
for  stock-raising.  The  whole  country  is  productive,  with  the 
application  of  water,  which  is  easily  collected  and  stored  in 
the  mountains.  This  long  strip  was  once  an  island,  so  tradi- 
tion had  it,  or  at  least  it  was  supposed  to  be  an  island,  which 
answered  every  purpose  of  the  early  cartographers.  The 
Colorado  river,  rising  in  western  Wyoming  as  Green  river, 
and  flowing  2,000  miles  through  wild  canons  and  sandy  plains 
to  the  gulf  of  California,  affords  some  navigation,  besides  sup- 
plying fertilizing  waters  for  the  desert. 

The  coast  line  of  the  United  States  on  the  Pacific  and  Arc- 


176  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

tic  oceans  is  twice  as  long  as  that  of  the  Atlantic.  California 
has  about  800  miles  of  coast  line,  with  but  few  harbors  as 
compared  with  those  of  the  eastern  side  of  America,  or  with 
those  of  the  eastern  side  of  Asia.  Oregon's  great  harbor,  the 
beautiful  Columbia,  extends  hundreds  of  miles  inland,  while 
Washington,  British  Columbia,  and  Alaska,  each  has  a  plenti- 
ful supply  of  safe  ports.  Besides  the  harbors  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, San  Diego,  and  Humboldt,  there  are  many  anchorages 
along  the  coast  of  California  where  vessels  can  lie  in  safety  in 
calm  weather. 

San  Diego,  the  south-westernmost  city  in  the  United  States, 
has  a  land-locked  harbor  six  miles  long,  and  except  San  Fran- 
cisco bay  the  best  on  the  California  coast.  The  city  is  situated 
on  the  fine-weather-  route  from  the  gulf  states  to  Asia,  and  on 
a  shorter  route  than  any  other  from  the  government  capital 
to  its  Pacific  island  possessions.  Los  Angeles  is  a  prosperous 
and  beautiful  city,  with  many  manufactures,  a  large  com- 
merce, and  environed  by  orange  groves  and  fruit  farms  of 
wide  extent,  with  the  port  of  San  Pedro,  twelve  miles  distant. 
Santa  Barbara  is  charming;  San  Luis  Obispo  is  a  busy  city; 
Santa  Cruz  is  something  of  a  watering  place;  San  Jose  is  a 
thriving  business  city,  while  the  capital,  Sacramento,  unites 
legislation  with  industry.  The  bay  of  Monterey  sweeps  round 
in  front  of  the  hills  and  forest  in  the  rear,  which  form  a 
beautiful  background  to  a  charming  picture  in  front.  Though 
by  no  means  land-locked,  the  southern  bend  affords  protec- 
tion for  shipping  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  Most 
of  the  white  lime-covered  adobe  buildings  along  the  broad 
irregular  streets  that  characterized  the  Hispano-Californian 
capital,  have  long  since  given  place  to  improvements  more 
befitting  a  modern  city. 

A  line  of  Franciscan  missions  along  the  coast  from  San 
Diego  to  San  Francisco  was  the  first  move  toward  wresting 
California  from  savagism.  The  church  buildings  were  mostly 
of  stone  brick  and  adobe,  stuccoed  and  cemented,  in  a  mixture 
of  Moorish  and  Byzantine  architecture.  The  mission  church 
of  San  Xavier  del  Bee,  ten  miles  from  Tucson,  in  Arizona,  was 
thirty  years  in  building,  being  completed  in  1798. 

Sea-fishing  as  an  industry  in  southern  California  has 
scarcely  been  begun.  Peculiar  to  these  waters  are  the  black 
sea  bass,  the  barracuda,  bonita,  mullet,  and  yellow-tail,  while 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND  ITS   BORDERS     177 

the  sardines  here  are  of  a  variety  known  elsewhere  only  in  the 
China  sea  and  off  the  coast  of  Africa.  Myriads  of  mackerel 
swarm  along  the  entire  coast.  In  northern  waters  the  in- 
dustry assumes  larger  proportions,  but  is  still  small  as  com- 
pared with  what  it  might  be. 

San  Francisco,  upon  a  bay  second  to  none  in  the  world, 
began  in  1835  as  Yerba  Buena,  the  presidio,  or  military  quar- 
ters, being  a  few  miles  away  in  one  direction,  and  the  mission 
buildings  in  another.  The  waters  of  the  bay,  which  is  60 
miles  long,  come  in  from  the  junction  of  the  rivers  Sacramento 
and  San  Joaquin  through  the  strait  of  Carquinez,  and  find  the 
ocean  through  the  Golden  Gate,  a  strait  five  miles  long  and 
one  mile  wide,  with  a  depth  of  thirty  feet  on  the  bar  at  the 
entrance.  San  Francisco  has  now  the  opportunity  to  become 
the  London,  New  York,  or  Chicago  of  the  Pacific,  if  her  lead- 
ing citizens  will  take  the  trouble  to  make  her  so.  Cities  are 
made  by  men,  not  by  Micawbers. 

There  are  a  score  or  two  of  life-saving  stations  on  the 
American  coast,  a  drill  being  kept  up  at  the  Golden  Gate  sta- 
tion, where  the  shore  is  patrolled  night  and  day  for  a  distance 
of  sixteen  miles.  The  Pacific  United  States  coast  has  sixteen 
lighthouse  districts,  in  all  of  which  are  good  service.  During 
the  century  dating  from  1776,  the  United  States  government 
spent  upon  lighthouses  $93,250,000.  New  naval  stations  are 
established  at  several  points,  and  thus  the  Pacific  is  gradually 
being  supplied  with  all  the  requirements  of  a  great  and  grow- 
ing comjnerce. 

The  Americans  as  well  as  the  British  have  in  hand  the  con- 
struction of  transpacific  telegraphic  cable  lines.  A  route  was 
laid  out  by  the  United  States  government  from  San  Francisco 
to  Honolulu,  thence  to  Wake  island,  of  which  possession  was 
taken  by  the  United  States  for  that  purpose,  and  then  to 
Guam  island,  of  the  Ladrone  group,  and  on  to  Manila.  Dis- 
tance from  San  Francisco  to  Honolulu,  2,089  miles;  thence 
to  Wake  island  2,000  miles;  1,300  from  there  to  Guam;  and 
from  Guam  to  Manila  1,372  miles;  total  6,761  miles.  The  line 
passes  south  of  the  submerged  mountain  570  miles  from  San 
Francisco.  Average  depth  of  ocean  two  and  a  half  to  three 
miles.  Estimated  cost  $1,000  to  $2,000  a  mile.  There  are  now 
1,500  submarine  telegraphs  in  the  world,  aggregating  170,000 
miles  in  length,  constructed  at  a  cost  of  $250,000,000,  and 


178  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

over  which  6,000,000  messages  are  annually  transmitted. 
With  all  these  submarine  wires  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  land  lines,  the  Pacific  cables  will  connect,  so  that  there  will 
be  no  more  hidden  or  remote  places  in  all  these  vast  waters. 
Mexico  reaches  the  Atlantic  by  lines  which  traverse  the  gulf, 
while  from  South  America  wires  through  the  ocean  and  the 
Caribbean  sea  connect  with  Central  America  and  the  United 
States,  and  thence  to  Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia.  Along  the 
islands  and  mainland  of  the  eastern  Asiatic  coast,  cable  lines 
extend  from  port  to  port,  connecting  with  land  lines  from 
eastern  Europe  through  Siberia  to  China,  Japan,  the  Philip- 
pines, the  Straits  settlements,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand. 
The  borders  of  North  and  South  America,  and  of  Africa,  are 
skirted  with  land  or  cable  lines;  in  fact  every  considerable 
body  of  water  lying  between  important  countries  is  crossed 
by  marine  lines,  except  the  Pacific,  which  will  soon  be  amply 
supplied.  The  lines  along  the  shores  of  Asia,  from  Siberia 
to  Australia,  represent  a  large  amount  of  work,  while  that 
from  Australia  to  New  Zealand  is  1,000  miles  long,  and  from 
Australia  to  New  Caledonia  800  miles.  Fears  have  been  ex- 
pressed that  the  depth  of  water  in  the  Pacific  would  prevent 
the  successful  operating  of  cables  here.  But  it  has  been  ascer- 
tained that  the  difference  is  not  so  great.  A  cable  has  been 
laid,  however,  between  Hayti  and  the  Windward  islands  in 
18,000  feet  of  water,  while  between  San  Francisco  and  Hono- 
lulu the  greatest  depth  is  18,300,  and  between  Honolulu  and 
Manila  the  greatest  depth  is  estimated  at  19,600  feet.  From 
such  bathymetric  data  as  he  has  been  able  to  procure,  Otto 
Krummel  estimates  the  mean  depth  of  the  Pacific  2,160 
fathoms,  that  of  the  Atlantic  being  2,040  fathoms. 

There  were  8,000  miles  of  railway  in  operation  in  Australia 
in  1887,  all  those  in  the  two  oldest  colonies,  New  South  Wales 
and  Victoria  being  either  built  or  purchased  by  the  govern- 
ment. The  capitals  of  the  four  leading  colonies  are  con- 
nected by  a  continuous  line  from  Adelaide  to  Brisbane.  In 
New  Zealand  railway  construction  was  begun  in  1860,  and 
Lyttleton  connected  with  Christchurch. 

The  total  cost  of  railway  construction  in  the  United  States 
is  about  $10,000,000,000  for  175,000  miles,  more  than  all 
elsewhere  on  the  globe.  Cost  of  construction  in  the  United 
States  and  Australia  about  the  same,  $58,000  a  mile;  run- 


THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN  AND  ITS   BORDERS     179 

ning  expenses  in  Australia  under  government  management 
58  per  cent,  and  in  the  United  States  65  per  cent. 

Railway  traffic  in  the  United  States  began  in  1830.  In 
1869  was  completed  the  Central  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific, 
the  first  overland  railways  in  America  north  of  Panama,  at  a 
cost  of  $200,000,000  furnished  mostly  by  the  government, 
though  held  and  controlled  when  finished  by  individuals  who 
repudiated  their  obligations  to  the  government,  and  operated 
the  road  upon  the  plan  of  charging  "  all  the  traffic  will  stand." 
The  Southern  Pacific  company  was  incorporated  in  1865,  re- 
ceiving a  land  subsidy,  the  Central  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific 
obtaining  both  land  and  money.  The  Canadian  Pacific  was 
completed  in  1885  at  a  cost  of  $120,000,000,  the  government 
giving  25,000,000  acres  of  land,  $47,500,000  in  money,  guar- 
anteeing three  per  cent  interest  on  $100,000,000  for  ten  years, 
besides  building  and  giving  the  company  70  miles  of  the  road 
at  a  cost  to  the  government  of  $30,000,000. 

Mexico  has  the  Central,  the  National,  and  the  Interna- 
tional, all  running  up  and  down  the  continent.  The  Pacific 
coast  railway  has  been  for  some  time  projected,  running  down 
the  coast  from  San  Diego  to  Mexico,  and  Central  and  South 
American  ports,  with  a  direct  line  also  from  San  Diego  to 
Yuma  and  the  east. 

Railway  lines  were  established  hi  Central  America,  one  in 
1880  from  San  Jos6  to  Esquintla,  Guatemala,  and  later  from 
Champerico  to  Retalhulen,  and  from  San  Jose  to  Guatemala 
city;  in  Honduras,  a  road  was  begun  from  Puerto  Caballos,  on 
the  Caribbean  sea,  to  Amapala,  on  the  bay  of  Fonseca;  in 
Salvador,  from  San  Miguel  to  Port  La  Union,  and  from  Aca- 
jutla  to  the  coffee  growing  districts  of  Santa  Ana;  in  Nica- 
ragua, from  Corinto  to  Leon  by  way  of  Chinandega,  connect- 
ing with  steamer  service  on  the  lake;  in  Costa  Rica,  from 
San  Jose1  and  Leon  respectively  to  the  Pacific,  and  from 
Puntarenas  to  Esparta. 

In  Ecuador  was  established  in  1887  a  railway  from  Yuag- 
uachi  to  Puente  de  Chimbo,  and  later  one  from  Puerto 
Bolivar  to  Machala.  Peru  began  in  1852  connecting  by  rail 
the  seaports  with  the  interior  valleys,  and  in  1878  there  were 
about  2,000  miles  of  road  in  operation,  costing  $180,000,000, 
the  longest  crossing  the  cordillera  at  an  elevation  of  15,000 
feet  above  sea  level. 


180  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Chili  was  yet  earlier,  the  Copiapo  railway  being  in  opera- 
tion in  1850,  followed  by  1,700  miles  of  other  roads,  one-third 
of  which  are  the  property  of  the  state. 

Tributary  to  the  two  chief  ports  of  Oregon,  Portland  and 
Astoria,  is  a  large  and  fertile  agricultural  country  with  every 
facility  of  rail  and  river  for  inland  transportation,  and  every 
opportunity  for  the  development  of  wealth  and  industry. 
The  Columbia  river  renders  tributary  to  the  ocean  a  vast 
region  extending  eastward  through  the  Cascade  range,  to 
which  its  rushing  waters  give  the  name,  to  the  Rocky  moun- 
tains and  northward  into  British  Columbia,  the  Willamette, 
on  which  stands  Portland,  branching  southward  toward  Cali- 
fornia. Oregon  and  her  cities  will  contribute  their  full  share 
to  the  commerce  and  wealth  of  the  New  Pacific.  Seattle  and 
Tacoma,  on  Puget  sound,  the  termini  of  overland  railways 
and  transpacific  steamship  lines,  are  shipping  points  of  great 
present  and  prospective  importance,  having  saw-mills,  ma- 
chine-shops, shipyards,  foundries,  breweries,  and  many  other 
manufactories.  Said  Wilkes  of  Puget  sound  and  its  sur- 
roundings: "I  venture  nothing  in  saying  that  there  is  no 
country  in  the  world  that  possesses  waters  equal  to  these.  The 
shores  of  all  these  inlets  and  bays  are  remarkably  bold;  so 
much  so  that  in  many  places  a  ship's  side  would  strike  the 
shore  before  the  keel  would  touch  the  ground.  The  country 
by  which  these  waters  are  surrounded  is  remarkably  salubri- 
ous, and  offers  every  advantage  for  the  accommodation  of  a 
vast  commercial  and  naval  marine." 

In  the  interior  of  Washington  the  autumn  intermixture  of 
yellow  and  green,  in  fir  poplar  and  pine,  presents  a  richness 
and  variety  of  coloring  of  which  the  artist  never  tires.  Of 
interior  cities  Spokane  is  susceptible  of  development  into 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  picturesque  places  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  work  in  this  direction  is  well  begun.  The  river 
adds  charm,  while  the  fertile  lands  around  afford  wealth. 

British  Columbia  is  about  the  size  of  New  South  Wales; 
large  interior  areas  remain  yet  unexplored.  Vancouver  island 
has  a  mild  equable  climate,  and  Victoria  is  a  delightful  city 
for  residence.  The  Canada  Pacific  railway  left  New  West- 
minster at  one  side,  but  gave  rise  to  Vancouver,  the  railway 
terminus,  and  port  for  transpacific  steamers,  which  is  well 
laid  out  on  a  peninsula  between  an  arm  of  the  sea  overlooked 


THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN  AND  ITS   BORDERS     181 

by  a  mountain  range,  and  a  background  of  forest.  At  the 
southern  end  of  Vancouver  island  is  the  naval  station  of 
Esquimalt,  which  when  first  established  was  an  isolated 
frontier  of  a  far  away  British  colony,  but  now  on  a  great  high- 
way, by  which  an  Englishman  can  travel  all  the  way  from 
London  to  Australia  on  his  own  soil  and  by  his  own  ships. 
Time  was  when  the  British  Columbia  representative  to  the 
Ottawa  parliament  must  take  steamer  for  Panama,  or  later, 
for  San  Francisco,  and  thence  overland  by  rail.  The  Canada 
Pacific  railway,  the  building  of  the  town  of  Vancouver,  es- 
tablishing a  transpacific  line  of  steamships,  and  the  union  of 
Canada  with  British  Columbia,  did  more  proportionately  for 
British  America  in  consolidating  and  developing  the  country, 
than  the  three  transcontinental  lines,  the  Northern  Pacific, 
the  Central  and  Union  Pacific,  and  the  Southern  Pacific  did 
for  the  United  States.  Vancouver,  the  terminus  of  the  Ca- 
nadian Pacific  railway,  like  Seattle  and  Tacoma,  is  a  point  of 
departure  for  the  Yukon  gold  fields.  With  the  railway  from 
the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Stikine  river,  the  entire  dis- 
tance from  Pacific  ports  to  Dawson  and  the  upper  Yukon  can 
be  made  by  water  and  rail.  Trained  dogs  for  the  Yukon  ser- 
vice are  brought  to  Vancouver  from  Newfoundland  and  Bel- 
gium. 

The  broken  shores  of  Alaska,  of  which  Sitka  is  the  metrop- 
olis, warmed  by  the  Japan  current,  and  with  their  wealth  of 
minerals  timber  fish  and  furs,  present  some  interesting  feat- 
ures. All  along  the  coast  to  Norton  sound  and  Icy  bay  are 
native  villages,  notably  at  the  sand-spit  at  Hotham  inlet,  a 
summer  rendezvous  for  trade  and  fishing;  also  at  Point  Hope, 
and  elsewhere.  Over  the  White  pass  and  connecting  Skagway 
with  the  Bennett,  Tagish,  and  Atlin  lakes  runs  the  Pacific 
and  Arctic  railway  through  primeval  solitudes  born  of  ice, 
but  now  ministering  to  the  hot  passions  of  avarice  and  am- 
bition. Besides  mining  and  a  little  vegetable  culture  and 
stock-raising,  Alaska  has  added  to  her  industries  reindeer 
ranching  and  the  raising  of  blue  foxes  for  the  fur.  The  great 
Yukon  river  of  Alaska,  2,100  miles  long,  empties  into  Bering 
strait;  the  Copper,  Suschitna,  Nuschagak,  and  Kuskokwim 
rivers  flow  into  the  Pacific,  and  the  Colville  into  the  Arctic 
ocean.  The  great  Sierra-Cascade  and  Coast  ranges  of  Cali- 
fornia and  Oregon  continue  through  British  Columbia  and 
7 


182  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

into  Alaska,  where  in  wild  confusion  they  meet  with  the 
continental  range  coming  in  from  South  and  North  America. 
As  coast  sentinel  of  this  great  northern  ice-land  stands  the 
active  volcanic  peak  of  St  Elias,  14,970  feet  high. 

Said  William  H.  Seward  in  a  speech  at  St  Paul  in  Septem- 
ber, 1860:  "  Standing  here  and  looking  far  off  into  the  North- 
west, I  see  the  Russian  as  he  busily  occupies  himself  in  es- 
tablishing seaports  and  towns  and  fortifications  on  the  verge 
of  this  continent  as  the  outposts  of  St  Petersburg,  and  I  can 
say,  '  Go  on  and  build  up  your  outposts  all  along  the  coast, 
up  even  to  the  Arctic  ocean;  they  will  yet  become  the  out- 
posts of  my  own  country,  monuments  of  the  civilization  of 
the  United  States  in  the  Northwest."  It  was  surely  with 
prophetic  inspiration  that  the  great  statesman  thus  saw  and 
spake,  for  before  seven  years  had  passed  by  those  words  were 
fulfilled. 

Pelagic  sealing,  or  the  capture  of  fur  seals  in  the  open  sea, 
was  prohibited  by  congress  in  1897;  and  inasmuch  as  citizens 
of  the  United  States  were  debarred  from  their  own  markets 
for  seals  thus  caught  by  them,  it  was  enacted  that  the  skins 
of  seals  caught  in  the  open  sea  by  citizens  of  other  countries, 
whether  made  into  sealskin  garments  or  otherwise,  should 
not  be  allowed  entry  through  the  United  States  custom  house. 
Though  annoyance  is  thus  caused  to  travellers  from  the 
United  States,  in  compelling  them  to  obtain  a  certificate  of 
identification  to  permit  the  reentry  of  such  garments  on  their 
return,  the  purpose  of  the  law  justifies  all  inconvenience. 

Over  the  sea  of  Okhotsk  and  Bering  strait,  along  the  chan- 
nel caused  by  the  rending  asunder  of  the  continents  of  Asia 
and  America,  tower  the  coast  line  of  peaks  which  are  the 
prolongation  of  the  mountain  chains  coming  forth  from 
the  plateaus  of  Central  Asia  and  forming  in  the  northeast 
the  highest  portion  of  the  continental  amphitheatre,  while  the 
Aleutian  isles  mark  the  northern  limits  of  the  great  ocean 
before  the  continents  were  disjoined  or  the  shore  line  sub- 
merged. 

In  the  far  north  are  the  Aleutian,  Kurile,  and  Pribylof  isl- 
ands, where  are  the  salmon  and  seals,  bears  foxes  whales  walrus 
and  water-fowls  which  furnish  the  inhabitants  with  food  and 
clothing,  as  well  as  boats  and  hunting  implements.  There  is 
scant  vegetation  on  these  isles,  except  where  the  interior  rises 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND  ITS   BORDERS     183 

into  mountains  as  on  the  mainland,  where  are  splendid  pine 
forests.  There  is  ice  enough  at  times  in  Bering  sea,  but  the 
water  is  not  sufficiently  deep  in  Bering  strait  to  permit  the 
flow  of  the  larger  class  of  icebergs.  Whalers  had  what  they 
called  times  of  icing  in  connection  with  whale-catching,  which 
required  skilful  navigation.  The  Eskimos  of  Siberia  and 
Alaska,  besides  catching  animals,  birds,  and  fishes,  including 
bears  seals  and  whales,  tan  leather,  and  make  clothes  of  skins 
and  cloth;  also  weapons  and  boats.  Important  industries  are 
raising  dogs  and  making  sledges  and  snow-shoes,  also  catching 
fur-bearing  animals  of  every  kind. 

Alaska  has  a  coast  line  of  18,211  miles,  nearly  twice  the 
united  lengths  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  seaboards  of  the 
United  States.  The  Alaska  coast  range  is  7,000  to  9,000  feet 
high,  with  occasional  peaks  of  14,000  or  16,000  feet,  perpet- 
ually snow  clad.  Alaska  is  wide,  but  Siberia  seems  laid  out 
on  a  yet  wider  scale,  with  high  mountain  ranges  and  broad 
plateaus  and  deserts.  On  the  northeast  Siberian  coast,  for 
miles  seaward  the  ocean  remains  frozen  for  more  than  half 
the  year.  In  Norton  sound  ice  forms  in  October.  Except  at 
the  extreme  ends,  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  never  freeze.  The 
peninsula  of  Kamchatka  has  several  imposing  volcanoes. 
Petropaulovski  stands  among  the  hills,  with  a  good  deep  har- 
bor, a  long  spit  in  front,  and  a  smoking  white  mountain,  Kor- 
iatski,  in  the  distance.  Between  the  bay  and  the  mountains 
is  a  grassy  plain,  intersected  with  streams  and  covered  in 
places  with  underbrush.  Separating  the  sea  of  Kamchatka 
from  the  Pacific  proper  are  the  Aleutian  isles,  or  insular  con- 
tinuation of  the  Alaskan  peninsula,  the  broken  ridge  which 
may  at  one  time  have  connected  the  continents  of  Asia  and 
America. 

On  the  Asiatic  side,  beginning  at  the  Arctic  ocean,  we  have 
first  the  arctic  plain,  then  the  grassy  steppes  where  dwell  the 
nomadic  Tartars  with  sheep  and  horses  for  food.  All  through 
this  vast  region  of  eastern  Siberia  are  forests,  filled  with  fur- 
bearing  animals,  interspersed  with  open  plains,  and  beyond  the 
tundras,  or  mossy  swamps,  where  fish  and  reindeer  supply  the 
inhabitants  with  food.  Bordering  the  sea  of  Okhotsk  and 
along  the  Amur  the  more  hardy  cereals  are  grown,  rye  oats  and 
barley,  the  fertility  of  the  soil  increasing  southward,  where 
cedar  forests  fringe  the  mountains  and  the  valleys  are  good 


184  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

for  general  agriculture.  Throughout  all  this  region  north  of 
Mongolia  the  Eussians  used  to  scatter  themselves  for  furs, 
which  were  then  the  currency  of  commerce;  now  the  precious 
metals  are  sought,  though  the  fur-trade  is  not  neglected. 

As  the  seal  herds  on  the  Pribylof  islands  die  and  disappear, 
principally  from  pelagic  sealing,  herds  of  sheep  and  cattle 
will  fill  the  islands  of  the  Aleutian  archipelago.  Some  of  the 
islands  are  covered  with  timber,  others  with  grass,  enough  of 
them  on  which  to  produce  a  fresh  crop  of  cattle  kings. 

Petropaulovski  presents  a  picture  of  desolation.  Scarcely 
a  human  being  is  to  be  seen  on  ordinary  days,  and  even  the 
starving  dogs  howl  piteously.  In  the  distance  sullenly  smokes 
the  volcano  Koselskoi,  whose  outlines,  with  the  neighboring 
peaks,  are  clearly  defined  against  a  cloudless  sky.  The  air  is 
calm  and  cold.  The  setting  sun  lights  up  the  hill-tops  in 
various  hues,  from  blue  and  green  to  red  and  gold.  Yet 
there  are  here,  besides  dwellings,  church,  barracks,  and  hos- 
pital, the  government  buildings  of  logs,  and  covered  with 
red-painted  iron. 

Vladivostok,  the  Pacific  metropolis  of  Siberia,  presents  the 
appearance  of  an  American  rather  than  an  Asiatic  city.  The 
deep  bay  is  a  mile  wide  and  two  and  a  half  miles  long;  back 
of  it  are  rolling  hills,  once  well  wooded.  It  is  a  naval  as  well 
as  military  station,  with  admiralty  board  and  club  house,  navy 
yard,  and  floating  and  dry  docks.  The  port  is  now  kept  open 
in  the  winter  by  means  of  mechanical  ice-breakers.  The  pop- 
ulation are  mostly  Russians,  Chinese,  and  Japanese,  with  a 
few  Americans,  English,  and  Germans.  But  while  in  every 
sense  Asiatic,  the  city  grows  and  property  booms  as  in  a  young 
town  of  the  United  States,  lots  which  in  1864  sold  for  500 
roubles  now  being  worth  5,000. 

At  Possiet  bay,  on  the  coast  of  Russian  Manchuria,  is  a 
military  station,  with  extensive  barracks  and  storehouses; 
there  is  another  large  military  post  at  Nowo  Kiewsk  near  by, 
the  population,  aside  from  the  Russian  soldiers,  being  princi- 
pally Korean.  At  these  stations  are  barracks  for  30,000  men. 

Siberia  must  necessarily  become  more  and  more  tributary 
to  the  Pacific,  as  that  country  increases  in  wealth  and  impor- 
tance under  the  influence  of  advancing  civilization.  Though 
arctic  in  location  and  character,  there  are  unlimited  resources, 
both  agricultural  and  mining,  which  will  one  day  surprise  the 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN  AND   ITS   BORDERS     185 

world.  There  are  vast  areas  of  fertile  black  earth  which  send 
forth  rapid  vegetation  during  the  hot  short  summer.  End- 
less rich  steppes  and  rivers  and  alpine  lakes,  dense  forests 
and  marshy  plateaus,  and  every  where  minerals  without  end, 
gold  in  the  alpine  region,  and  iron  and  the  rest  elsewhere.  In 
lineal  extent  the  Siberian  railway  is  the  greatest  in  the  world. 
It  is  destined  to  change  the  face  of  nature,  and  renew  the  life 
of  man  throughout  northern  Asia.  Construction  is  at  the 
rate  of  one  or  two  miles  a  day,  and  traffic  is  increasing  with 
wonderful  rapidity,  grain  being  the  chief  freight. 

Japan  is  rapidly  developing  in  industry  and  intelligence. 
The  islands  have  an  abundance  of  good  ports,  Yokohama  be- 
ing one  of  the  most  important  in  Asia.  Nagasaki  and  others 
are  rapidly  growing  into  prominence.  The  town  of  Simoda, 
in  Japan,  was  totally  destroyed  in  1854  by  an  earthquake  ac- 
companied by  tidal  waves,  and  a  few  hours  afterward  tidal 
waves  appeared  on  the  coast  of  California.  The  port  of  Hiogo 
was  opened  to  commerce  in  1868,  and  the  cities  of  Hiogo  and 
Kobe  now  form  one  community.  Their  growth  during  the 
past  thirty  years  has  been  phenomenal.  Substantial  brick 
buildings  line  the  paved  business  streets,  and  private  resi- 
dences cover  the  suburbs.  The  bay  is  filled  with  shipping, 
and  exports  and  imports  from  nothing  have  reached  $80,000,- 
000  a  year. 

It  is  said  by  geologists  that  during  the  tertiary  period  sub- 
sidences of  land  occurred  at  intervals  all  along  the  coast  of 
China,  and  thus  the  islands  were  made,  not  by  upheavals,  but 
by  the  dropping  down  into  the  depths  of  the  land  around 
them.  It  is  an  easy  explanation  of  a  lengthy  mystery,  for 
thus  we  have  accounted  for  all  the  islands  from  the  Kamchat- 
ka peninsula  to  Siam,  that  is  to  say  the  Kurile,  Japan,  and 
Lew  Chew  groups,  Formosa,  the  Philippine  archipelago,  as 
well  as  Borneo,  Java,  and  Sumatra.  All  these  once  were  a 
part  of  the  continent,  and  the  waters  which  cover  the  sub- 
merged land  now  constitute  the  seas  of  Okhotsk,  Japan,  and 
China,  the  Yellow  sea,  Formosa  channel,  and  the  rest.  Physi- 
cal changes  continue,  the  coast  line  to  vibrate,  and  new  lands 
and  new  waters  to  appear.  Earthquakes  are  frequent,  bring- 
ing disaster  and  death. 

The  configuration  of  China  is  written  in  her  river  and 
mountain  systems,  which  correspond  to  each  other  in  number 


186  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

and  magnitude.  From  the  length  and  volume  of  the  water- 
courses may  be  imagined  the  area  drained,  and  from  their 
sediment  may  be  seen  the  kind  of  soil  through  which  they 
flow.  The  Yangtse,  which  rises  in  the  mountains  of  Tibet, 
receives  contributions  from  half  the  empire,  and  reaches  the 
Pacific  at  Nanking  and  Shanghai,  is  the  central  stream  in  the 
river  system  of  China;  it  is  the  third  river  in  volume  in  the 
world,  and  the  first  in  regard  to  the  number  of  people  it  serves. 
In  the  south,  entering  the  Pacific  at  Canton  is  the  Si-Kiang, 
navigable  for  small  craft  for  1,000  miles,  and  in  the  north 
toward  Peking  the  Hoang-ho,  3,000  miles  long.  What  the 
Nile  is  to  Egypt  these  rivers  are  to  the  plains  of  China.  The 
Hoang-ho  has  a  way  of  breaking  away  from  its  old  channels 
and  rushing  at  random  over  the  country.  In  1852  it  left  its 
banks  and  wandered  off  toward  the  north;  in  1889  it  broke 
away  and  ran  south  to  the  Yangtse,  and  was  brought  back 
to  its  proper  course  at  a  cost  of  $13,000,000.  Another  char- 
acteristic of  the  streams  is  the  way  they  have  of  extending 
the  continent  into  the  sea,  at  a  rate  of  progress  unprecedented 
elsewhere,  which  doubtless  is  gratifying  to  the  powers  of  the 
world  in  view  of  the  coming  partition.  Besides  the  three 
great  rivers,  there  are  many  minor  streams  floating  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  interior  to  the  sea,  where  they  have  provided  them- 
selves for  the  most  part  with  good  harbors. 

The  seaports  of  China  are  not  on  the  sea,  but  on  a  river,  or 
a  little  inland,  and  walled,  and  so  better  protected  from  pi- 
rates and  foreign  devils.  Chifu  is  one  of  the  three  important 
northern  ports  of  China,  the  other  two  being  Tientsin  and 
Niuchwang.  Not  far  from  Chifu  the  Russians  are  at  work, 
with  six  ships  under  charter  to  bring  them  lumber  from  Ore- 
gon or  Puget  sound.  The  custom  house  jetty  is  a  busy  place, 
crowded  with  people  and  piled  high  with  merchandise.  At 
the  junction  of  the  Huei  river,  or  grand  canal,  with  the  Peiho, 
and  distant  eight  miles  from  Peking,  is  the  site  of  Tientsin, 
formerly  a  military  station,  but  assuming  importance  as  a 
city  some  200  years  ago.  It  has  now  a  population  of  1,000,000, 
with  an  ebb  and  flow  of  commerce  aggregating  65,000,000 
haikwan  taels,  or  $42,250,000  annually;  and  this,  although 
the  Peiho  is  not  always  navigable,  and  freight  has  to  be 
brought  up  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  in  lighters.  "  The 
growth  of  Tientsin  "  says  the  United  States  consul,  "  within 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     187 

the  past  few  years  is  most  astonishing.  The  mudholes  and 
swamps  of  a  few  years  ago  have  been  filled  in;  one,  two,  three, 
and  even  four  story  brick  buildings  erected;  streets  macadam- 
ized, trees  planted,  gas  works  constructed,  and  now  pipes 
for  a  very  elaborate  water  system  are  being  laid,  all  due  to 
foreign  enterprise.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Chinese  authori- 
ties have  been  seized  with  the  spirit  of  progress,  and  to  them 
is  due  the  building  and  furnishing  of  the  Imperial  Military 
college,  the  Imperial  university,  arsenals  for  the  manufacture 
of  guns  and  ammunition,  a  mint  for  the  coinage  of  silver,  and 
last,  but  not  least,  320  miles  of  splendid  railway.  Machinery 
has  also  been  purchased  for  a  complete  woollen  mill,  and 
many  other  improvements  are  now  under  consideration."  A 
mint  with  a  coining  capacity  per  hour  of  5,000  dollars  and 
18,000  smaller  coins  was  established  at  Chengtu  in  1898,  the 
machinery  being  brought  from  New  Jersey.  This  mint  coins 
dollars,  half  and  quarter  dollars,  dimes  and  half  dimes.  A 
mint  was  lately  established  at  Wachang  for  making  copper 
cash,  capacity  36,000  an  hour.  Ningpo  lies  inland  twelve 
miles,  on  the  river  Yung,  and  is  a  fortress  as  well  as  a  port. 
(J  roves  of  fir  make  green  the  hills  back  of  the  city,  while 
beyond  is  a  fertile  plain  watered  by  a  network  of  canals,  used 
for  transport  as  well  as  for  irrigation.  The  English  colony 
of  Hongkong  is  elsewhere  mentioned,  as  well  as  the  industrial 
mart  of  Shanghai.  To  reach  Fuchau,  the  capital  of  Fukien 
province,  one  enters  the  river  Min,  which  with  its  picturesque 
scenery  and  mountainous  background  reminds  one  of  the 
upper  Hudson.  Fuchau  is  a  clean  well-built  city  of  650,000 
inhabitants,  22  miles  from  the  sea.  It  is  situated  in  a  rolling 
plain,  and  is  the  centre  of  black  tea  culture  and  traffic.  Gun- 
boats are  built  in  this  vicinity,  where  are  shipyard,  naval  school, 
and  arsenal.  Fusan  is  now  more  Japanese  than  Korean.  The 
boats  and  harbor  are  Japanese,  the  shops  and  streets  of  the 
town  and  the  well-filled  cemetery  are  all  Japanese,  while  on 
the  bluff  is  a  Buddhist  temple  established  in  1592  during 
Japanese  occupation.  Two  hundred  miles  north  of  Hongkong 
is  the  flourishing  port  of  Amoy,  among  whose  merchants  are 
found  wealth  luxury  and  refinement.  On  the  island  of  Kul- 
angsu,  in  the  harbor,  is  a  foreign  colony. 

The  peninsula  of  Korea  is  about  600  by  135  miles,  with 
a  coast  line  of  1,740  miles,  and  contains  80,000  square  miles. 


188  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

For  eleven  miles  its  northern  frontier  is  conterminous  with 
Eussian  territory.  There  are  few  good  harbors,  the  best  be- 
ing Fusan  and  Wosan.  Kings  of  the  present  dynasty  have 
ruled  Korea  since  1392,  some  constitutional  modifications  hav- 
ing been  made  since  Japanese  ascendancy,  though  the  mon- 
archy is  still  hereditary,  and  the  sovereign  in  a  measure  abso- 
lute, his  edicts  being  law.  The  peninsula  is  divided  into 
thirteen  provinces  containing  360  magisterial  districts.  Eev- 
enue  is  derived  from  customs  duties,  and  land  tax  of  about  a 
dollar  an  acre.  Chinese  was  the  court  language,  that  is  to 
say  the  archaic  Chinese  of  a  thousand  years  ago,  but  the  na- 
tional feeling  now  inclines  to  a  Korean  language. 

Opposite  the  Fukien  province,  and  across  the  channel,  is 
famed  Formosa,  the  centre  of  hostilities  during  the  late  war 
between  Japan  and  China.  The  island  is  250  by  50  miles  in 
extent,  and  contains  some  15,000  square  miles.  The  moun- 
tainous interior  is  clothed  in  forests,  while  plantations  of 
rice,  tea,  sugar,  and  indigo  overspread  the  lowlands.  Here 
are  coal  deposits  and  oil  springs.  Eussian  oil,  which  threat- 
ened the  supremacy  of  the  American  article,  fell  off  before 
the  superior  methods  of  United  States  shippers,  who  now 
send  kerosene  to  Shanghai  in  tank  steamers  and  have  it  tinned 
on  arrival.  On  the  west  side  of  the  Korean  peninsula  the 
tide  rises  and  falls  from  26  to  38  feet.  Lines  of  electric  rail- 
ways are  either  projected  or  in  operation  in  Japan  from  Hiogo 
to  Amagaski,  from  Amagaski  to  Osaka,  and  from  Hiogo  to 
Armina. 

The  Philippine  islands,  now  rising  into  prominence  under 
United  States  regime,  are  destined  henceforth  to  play  no  un- 
important part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Far  East.  Manila  was  one 
of  the  earliest  commercial  centres  on  the  Asiatic  coast,  and  in 
many  respects  maintains  her  preeminence  to  the  present  day. 
For  the  protection  of  shipping  Manila  harbor  is  not  among 
the  best,  being  without  safe  anchorage,  and  swept  by  mon- 
soons in  every  season  of  the  year.  The  Pasig  river  cannot 
be  entered  by  vessels  drawing  over  sixteen  feet  of  water,  that  is 
to  say  without  the  assistance  of  the  typhoon.  A  breakwater 
has  been  attempted,  at  the  cost  of  several  millions  of  Spanish 
money,  for  a  distance  of  three-quarters  of  a  mile  out  from  the 
south  bank  of  the  Pasig,  affording  however  but  little  pro- 
tection. 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     189 

Subig  bay,  opening  from  the  China  sea  251  miles  north  of 
Corregidor  and  60  miles  from  Manila,  the  Spaniards  deemed 
the  better  place  for  their  new  navyyard,  which  was  under  con- 
struction when  Dewey  came.  Indeed,  it  has  long  been  thought 
that  Subig  must  eventually  become  the  maritime  centre  of 
Luzon.  The  south  islands  have  some  good  harbors,  that  of 
Iloilo  being  the  best.  The  single-track  railway  from  Manila 
to  Dagupin,  123  miles,  is  of  steel  rails,  well  built,  with  bridges 
of  stone  or  iron,  and  substantial  station  buildings.  Trains 
with  English  engines  make  45  miles  an  hour.  It  was  built 
under  government  concession  of  land,  right  of  way,  and 
guarantee  of  eight  per  cent  for  ninety-nine  years,  when  it 
becomes  the  property  of  the  state.  It  has  paid  stockholders 
thus  far  ten  per  cent  on  the  capital.  One  of  the  first  acts  of 
the  new  administration  after  the  capture  of  Manila  was  to 
clear  the  mouth  of  the  Pasig  river  of  the  obstructions  placed 
there  by  the  Spaniards,  thus  opening  the  port  to  interisland 
steamers,  which  Admiral  Dewey  had  held  at  anchor  in  the 
bay.  In  consequence  of  which  a  large  traffic  sprang  up  along 
the  water  front,  which  deluged  the  custom-house  and  port 
.offices  with  business.  The  Hongkong  cable  was  also  soon  in 
operation,  giving  communication  with  the  outside  world. 
Iloilo,  the  second  city  in  importance  of  the  Philippi^  a  group, 
is  situated  250  miles  southeast  of  Manila,  on  the  island  of 
Panay.  It  stands  by  a  narrow  inlet  near  to  the  sea. 

If  coaling  stations  are  needed  for  the  navy  they  are  also 
needed  for  the  merchant  marine,  and  opportunities  for  sup- 
plying this  deficiency,  all  the  way  from  the  Antilles  to  Asia, 
our  late  misunderstanding  with  Spain  has  amply  provided. 
A  beautiful  string  they  make,  Porto  Rico,  Nicaragua,  Hawaii, 
the  Ladrones,  and  the  Philippines,  a  necklace  of  black  dia- 
monds, when  arrangements  are  completed.  The  Ladrones 
are  3,300  miles  west  of  Honolulu,  1,350  south  of  Yokohama, 
and  1,640  southeast  of  Manila.  The  best  harbor  of  the 
Ladrones  is  on  the  west  coast  of  the  island  of  Guam,  a  port 
little  known  to  commerce,  though  visited  sometimes  by 
whalers  for  supplies,  and  that  without  fear  of  the  desertion 
of  the  crew.  Then  Japanese  craft  found  the  place  and  tool: 
away  every  year  the  copra  crop,  and  a  Manila  ship,  driven 
from  her  course,  sometimes  took  in  water  there.  It  is  now 
a  United  States  coaling  station.  Angana,  the  chief  town  of 


190  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

the  island,  has  an  anchorage,  but  not  much  of  a  harbor,  but 
six  miles  away  is  the  bay  of  San  Luis  d'  Apra,  a  broad  ex- 
panse of  protected  waters  capable  of  giving  safe  anchorage 
to  a  hundred  of  the  largest  ships.  The  northern  side  is  pro- 
tected by  Cobras  island,  and  the  south  side  by  a  coral  reef, 
the  entrance  channel  being  under  the  heights  of  Point  Orote 
where  the  Spaniards  had  a  fort.  It  is  an  ideal  coaling  station, 
and  of  great  value  to  the  United  States  as  a  way  port  for 
vessels  sailing  to  the  Orient.  The  islands  are  1,500  miles 
from  Luzon,  1,350  from  Yokohama,  and  3,300  from  Honolulu. 
They  are  of  volcanic  origin,  prolific,  and  healthy;  popula- 
tion 10,000.  The  natives  are  peaceable  and  hospitable. 

Obliquely  across  the  South  sea  from  the  Philippines  to 
Easter  island  extends  the  Polynesian  archipelago,  the  line 
between  the  different  directions  of  wind  and  water  currents, 
no  less  than  of  wave  undulations.  In  the  famous  Fiji  islands 
is  where  cannibalism  becomes  classic.  Here  are  100,000  peo- 
ple on  200  islands,  cultivating  sugar  and  tobacco,  and  per- 
mitting many  fruits  and  roots  to  grow  without  much  cultiva- 
tion. They  are  an  ill-favored  lot;  large  and  strong  but  thin; 
not  quite  so  beastly  and  idiotic  as  they  look,  but  sufficiently 
so.  Most  of  the  aboriginal  islanders  hereabout  are  below  the 
average  European  height,  but  the  Fijians  are  above  it.  The 
fruits  and  products  are  about  the  same  here  as  at  the  other 
South  sea  islands,  sugar  and  tobacco,  cocoa  bread-fruit  oranges 
and  yams,  also  sandalwood  and  palms.  On  most  of  the  Pacific 
isles  are  American  English  and  German  planters  and  traders 
who  dominate  society  and  commerce.  At  Fiji,  and  elsewhere 
in  the  South  Pacific,  are  coral  mountains,  1,000  feet  high> 
raised  by  submarine  action  and  still  growing;  a  salt  water 
lake  bordered  by  yellow  calcareous  slime,  which  stands  upon 
the  summit,  indicates  the  presence  of  living  coral. 

The  name  Caroline  islands  is  broadly  applied  to  all  Micro- 
nesia, including  the  Pelew  islands  and  the  Mulgrave  archipel- 
ago. The  Carolines  proper,  with  hundreds  of  small  islands, 
lie  between  them.  The  natives  are  Malays,  and  under  proper 
guidance  are  not  unwilling  to  work.  Left  to  themselves  they 
prefer  a  life  of  pleasure.  At  the  time  of  the  treaty  with  Spain, 
the  purchase  of  the  Pelew  islands  was  deemed  desirable,  as 
well  as  the  retention  of  the  Carolines,  as  "Waloa,  the  southern- 
most island  of  the  Ladrones  is  only  300  miles  north  of  Ponape, 


THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  AND  ITS  BOHDEKS     191 

of  the  Carolines,  and  the  Pelew  islands  are  only  600  miles 
distant  from  the  Philippines,  and  their  possession  would  give 
the  United  States  a  chain  of  islands  extending  half  way  across 
the  Pacific.  A  great  part  of  the  Asiatic  trade  passes  between 
the  Ladrones  and  the  Carolines,  and  the  advantages  of  the 
control  of  this  natural  channel  of  commerce  are  obvious.  The 
Caroline  islands  are  very  fertile.  There  are  large  areas  of  un- 
appropriated lands  which  with  capital  can  be  turned  to  very 
profitable  account. 

The  Marshall  islands  are  of  coral  formation,  on  which  is  a 
vegetable  mold  growing  cocoanuts  and  bread-fruit.  The  sur- 
face of  the  Solomon  islands  is  more  elevated,  and  is  as  a  rule 
fertile  and  well  wooded.  It  is  said  that  the  discoverer  called 
these  islands  after  King  Solomon,  because  he  obtained  there 
the  gold  for  the  temple,  taking  it  all  away;  at  all  events  none 
is  there  now.  How  all  this  came  to  be  known  is  not  stated. 

For  food  the  naked  natives  like  best  lizards,  crocodiles, 
and  missionaries;  though  when  they  are  not  plentiful  they 
find  nuts  and  wild  fruit,  and  find  happiness  further  in  chew- 
ing the  betel  nut,  and  smoking  tobacco,  the  weed  being  like- 
wise the  regular  currency.  The  Galapagos  islands  were  so 
called  from  the  turtles  which  abound  there. 

The  Moluccas,  or  historic  Spice  islands,  eight  in  number, 
grow  for  the  Dutch  cloves  and  nutmegs,  peppers,  and  other 
spices.  The  opossum  and  the  bat  are  here  conspicuous,  and 
snakes  in  plenty,  among  them  the  charming  python,  thirty 
feet  long,  and  which  finds  no  difficulty  in  swallowing  men,  or 
even  deer.  The  Sulu  archipelago,  which  has  been  called  an 
annex  of  the  Philippines,  or  a  continuation  of  the  promon- 
tory of  Mindanao,  comprises  three  groups  of  small  islands 
known  as  Baseeland,  Sulu,  and  Tawutawa,  numbering  about 
140  in  all.  They  extend  35  miles  from  east  to  west,  with  a 
breadth  varying  from  five  to  ten  miles,  and  an  area  of  2,000 
square  miles,  where  dwell  75,000  people,  mostly  Moham- 
medans. The  Sulus  are  good  sailors  and  delight  in  piracy. 
They  are  mendacious  and  perfidious,  proud  and  cruel,  ostenta- 
tious and  revengeful.  There  has  been  a  desultory  conflict 
with  Spain  running  along  the  centuries,  but  the  island  of  Sulu 
was  formally  conquered  by  the  Spaniards  in  1851  and  added 
to  the  archipelago  in  1878,  the  sultan  receiving  an  income  of 
$2,000  per  annum.  Each  island  has  its  despot,  whose  rule  is 


193  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

subject  to  the  nobles.  Besides  the  products  of  their  pearl 
fisheries,  which  are  not  inconsiderable,  the  more  conspicuous 
articles  of  their  own  growing  are  camphor  pepper  and  dye 
woods,  sea-slugs  and  edible  birds-nests,  cinnamon  and  cloves, 
and  beeswax,  tortoise-shells,  rattans,  and  sago.  The  pearls 
though  small  are  of  good  quality.  Elephants  were  brought 
here  from  India.  Quite  a  traffic  is  done  in  slaves. 

New  Caledonia,  the  French  penal  station,  is  supposed  to  be 
better  for  mining  than  agriculture,  nickel  being  the  promi- 
nent metal  thus  far  found.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Loyalty 
islands,  the  Samoan,  Friendly,  and  Society  islands,  are  all 
upon  about  the  same  plane,  low  enough  in  the  scale  of  hu- 
manity, lazy,  improvident — indeed  it  is  not  necessary  for 
them  to  be  otherwise.  How  few  in  this  world  will  work  if 
not  obliged  to!  The  soil  here  is  of  wonderful  fertility,  pos- 
sibilities of  production  limitless.  To  say  that  there  may  be 
grown  in  most  cases  two  or  four  crops  a  year  does  not  fairly 
express  it,  but  rather  I  should  say  most  products  grow  and 
ripen  every  day  the  year  round.  Besides  sugarcane  tobacco 
and  pine-apples,  sweet  potatoes,  yams,  coffee,  oranges,  and 
bananas,  there  are  the  banyan,  bamboo,  rattan,  bread-fruit, 
and  other  valuable  trees,  of  spontaneous  if  not  of  indigenous 
growth.  The  Tahitians  are  superior  in  some  respects  to  their 
neighbors. 

Oceanica,  with  its  Caroline  islands,  and  Pelew  islands,  and 
the  rest,  occupies  waters  2,000  miles  in  extent  east  and  west. 
There  was  at  one  time  quite  a  little  nest  of  pirates,  not  of 
Mongolian  or  Malayan  breed,  some  of  whom  are  always  pres- 
ent in  these  eastern  Asiatic  seas,  but  European  pirates,  who 
left  on  one  of  the  Bornabis  a  fortification,  now  in  ruins,  the 
stones  of  which  were  some  of  them  ten  feet  in  length,  and  evi- 
dently brought  thither  from  a  distance.  The  inhabitants  are 
skilful  boatmen,  but  the  frequent  hurricanes  do  not  add  to 
the  felicity  of  life  upon  the  water.  Their  houses  are  of  bam- 
boo, and  their  boats  the  trunk  of  a  tree  cut  out  with  a  hatchet, 
with  vines  for  cordage,  sails  of  split  rushes,  and  mats  for 
clothing,  that  is  when  they  have  clothing. 

At  the  southwest  corner  of  this  aqueous  amphitheatre, 
under  the  terms  Australasia  and  Malaysia,  are  grouped,  both 
as  to  size  and  number,  probably  half  of  the  islands  on  the 
globe,  covering  an  area  6,000  miles  in  length  from  the  Philip- 


TUP]   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     193 

pines  to  New  Zealand,  by  3,000  miles  in  width  from  the  Indian 
ocean  and  the  China  sea  to  the  Pacific.  Among  them  are  in- 
cluded the  Philippines,  Borneo,  the  Moluccas  or  Spice  islands, 
New  Guinea,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  several  thousand 
more.  The  Malay  archipelago  alone,  if  we  include  in  that 
term  the  Philippine  islands,  is  not  only  the  largest  but  the 
most  important  group  of  islands  in  the  world. 

The  island-continent  of  Australia  is  in  size  2,500  by  1,950 
miles,  and  consists  of  several  colonies  of  Great  Britain.  For 
the  same  reason  that  the  Pacific  ocean  remained  so  long,  un- 
known to  civilization,  being  on  the  other  side  of  the  world 
and  impossible  for  the  ancients  to  reach,  so  it  was  with  this 
great  body  of  land  antipodal  to  the  Mediterranean  world. 
Yet  it  is  somewhat  strange  that  with  the  early  idea  of  a 
Terra  Australis  some  day  to  appear,  little  was  positively 
known  of  this  country  prior  to  the  time  of  Tasman  and  Cook. 
Even  these  were  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  apart  in  their 
discoveries,  and  before  Tasman's  voyage  of  1642,  Portuguese, 
Spaniards,  and  Dutchmen  report  having  seen  patches  of  land 
thereabout  on  various  occasions.  Captain  Dampier,  the  Brit- 
ish buccaneer,  was  on  the  Australian  coast  in  1688,  in  the 
capacity  of  pirate,  but  later  as  a  respectable  navigator  under 
the  auspices  of  the  English  admiralty.  Then  came  Cook,  and 
after  him  England's  criminals,  and  finally  the  gold-hunters, 
sheep-raisers,  and  colonists  of  staid  respectability. 

Thus  the  outer  edges  of  this  Australis  Terra  became  known 
to  navigators  and  settlers,  but  the  interior  remained  yet  for  a 
long  time  a  terra  incognita,  until  in  1860  the  government  of 
South  Australia  offered  to  give  £10,000  to  the  man  who  should 
first  cross  the  island  from  Adelaide  to  the  northern  side. 
The  Victoria  colonists  raised  a  fund  for  the  same  purpose, 
and  others  elsewhere  for  explorations  east  and  west,  until 
wide  areas  became  known. 

Great  ranges  of  mountains  are  interspersed  with  vast  plains, 
with  forests  and  grassy  hills,  lakes  and  inland  seas,  and  rivers, 
one,  the  Murray,  1,100  miles  long,  and  navigable  eight  months 
in  the  year  for  nearly  its  whole  length.  As  a  rule,  however, 
the  Australian  rivers  are  not  long.  All  the  metals  exist  in  all 
the  provinces,  but  the  great  gold  fields,  discovered  in  1851, 
are  in  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria.  In  the  two  decades 
following,  Victoria  exported  40,750,000  ounces  of  gold,  and 


194  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

New  South  Wales  not  quite  10,000,000  ounces,  while  Queens- 
land from  18GO  to  1873  gave  out  1,000,000  ounces.  Australia 
for  the  most  part  is  hot  and  dry,  yet  there  are  places  where  90 
inches  of  rain  fall.  The  colony  of  Victoria,  occupying  south- 
eastern Australia,  known  first  as  Port  Phillip,  was  begun  as  a 
convict  settlement  in  1803.  When  in  1851  Edward  Har- 
graves  found  gold  in  New  South  Wales,  half  of  the  hundred 
thousand  people  in  Victoria  rushed  thither,  and  when  six 
months  later  gold  at  Clunes,  and  the  rich  Ballarat  deposits 
were  found,  they  all  rushed  back  again,  and  with  them  fifty 
thousand  more.  They  had  a  way  in  Australia  when  they 
wanted  a  thing  of  hunting  for  it.  When  the  Victorians  saw 
their  country  depopulated  by  the  New  South  Wales  mines, 
the  citizens  of  Melbourne  offered  a  reward  to  him  who  should 
first  find  gold  in  Victoria,  and  Clunes  and  Ballarat  were  the 
result. 

They  tell  the  story  of  this  same  Edward  Hargraves  that  in 
California  he  saw  Marshall  shortly  after  he  had  found  gold 
at  Coloma.  "  Yes,"  said  Marshall,  "  I  first  found  this  gold 
that  is  turning  all  the  world  wild/'  "  That  is  nothing ", 
Hargraves  replied  "  I  can  find  gold  if  I  want  to."  "  Where  ?  " 
demanded  Marshall.  "  In  Australia  ".  "  Well,  you  had  bet- 
ter go  and  find  it ".  And  he  went. 

Of  the  Australian  colonies,  New  South  Wales  and  New  Zea- 
land do  the  largest  trade  with  the  Pacific.  The  largest  city 
in  Australia  is  Melbourne,  the  capital  of  Victoria.  The  gold 
discovery  gave  the  city  its  first  great  impetus,  100,000  diggers 
landing  at  this  port  the  first  year,  the  permanent  population 
rapidly  increasing  from  that  time.  The  manufactures  of 
Melbourne  are  flour,  articles  in  leather  wood  and  iron,  cloth- 
ing, carriages,  and  fifty  other  like  important  industries.  The 
commerce  is  large,  1,500  vessels  sometimes  arriving  in  a  year. 
In  Melbourne  and  in  San  Francisco  the  cheap  restaurant  has 
become  an  institution,  some  of  the  former  having  become 
rich  on  sixpenny  meals  only,  and  the  latter  furnishing  good 
dishes  at  five  and  ten  cents  each.  Sydney  is  to  Australia  as 
New  York  and  San  Francisco  are  to  the  United  States, 
namely,  the  chief  seaport  of  a  long  line  of  coast,  a  beautiful 
harbor  with  picturesque  surroundings,  and  a  commerce  reach- 
ing to  all  parts  of  the  world.  As  a  rule  the  railways  in  Aus- 
tralia belong  to  the  government,  even  such  as  were  built  by 


THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     195 

private  companies  becoming  later  the  property  of  the  state. 
The  system  works  well,  and  people  are  satisfied  with  it.  The 
vast  and  vital  interests  connected  with  interior  traffic  and 
transportation  are  thus  always  in  the  hands  of  the  people 
themselves,  and  not  under  control  of  grinding  monopolies. 
Personal  profit  is  here  not  the  only,  or  even  the  primary  ob- 
ject of  government,  but  the  welfare  of  the  country.  To 
southeastern  Australia  Cook  gave  the  name  of  New  South 
Wales,  whose  area  was  subsequently  extended,  and  erected 
into  a  separate  colony,  and  whose  commercial  and  political 
metropolis  is  Sydney,  on  Port  Jackson,  one  of  the  finest  har- 
bors in  the  world.  Cook  missed  this  anchorage,  and  entered 
Botany  bay,  six  miles  southward,  where  was  also  landed  the 
first  convict  fleet  from  England  in  1788.  Sydney  has  three 
large  public  wharves,  several  parks,  government  house,  bo- 
tanic gardens,  colleges,  town  hall,  cathedral,  theatres,  and  all 
the  other  adjuncts  of  advanced  civilization.  New  South 
Wales  has  rich  alluvial  soils  on  which  thrive  all  grasses,  tend- 
ing to  extensive  grazing  industries;  also  grain  and  tobacco. 
Wool  is  one  of  the  chief  industries  of  Australia.  Gold,  silver, 
copper,  tin,  and  coal  are  mined  extensively.  For  a  long  time 
New  South  Wales  was  little  more  than  a  penal  settlement. 

Papua,  or  New  Guinea,  lying  just  north  of  Australia,  is  the 
largest  island  in  the  world,  except  Australia,  being  1,490  miles 
long  and  300  or  400  miles  wide.  It  was  sighted  by  Dabreu 
in  1511,  and  visited  by  the  Portuguese,  Meneses,  in  1526. 
Upon  the  spread  of  Islamism  to  the  Moluccas  early  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  the  Malay  rulers  of  contiguous  small  isles 
claimed  sovereignty  over  New  Guinea,  which  was  later  exer- 
cised by  the  sultan  of  Tidore.  Then  came  the  Dutch,  and 
later  the  officers  and  men  of  the  East  India  company.  The 
natives  are  of  medium  stature,  in  color  a  Polynesian  brown, 
and  are  altogether  about  the  lowest  of  the  Malayan  race. 

New  Caledonia,  next  in  size  among  the  Pacific  isles  to  New 
Zealand,  some  240  miles  long,  was  discovered  by  Cook  in  1774, 
and  was  used  by  the  French  as  a  convict  settlement  in  1853. 
Noumea,  the  capital,  has  a  good  harbor,  with  a  beautiful  and 
varied  landscape.  The  country  consists  of  mountains  and  cul- 
tivable plains,  and  at  one  time  supplied  commerce  with  large 
quantities  of  sandal-wood.  Australian  miners  are  here,  and 
concessions  have  been  given  to  colonists,  but  the  convict  agri- 


196  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

cultural  establishments  are  said  to  be  more  successful.  From 
December  to  March  the  weather  is  hot  and  wet;  the  timber 
is  fine,  and  all  the  tropical  plants  grow  in  profusion. 

The  colony  of  New  Zealand  comprises  the  Chatham  and  the 
Auckland  islands,  situated  antipodal  to  Great  Britain.  Dense 
forests  are  here  interspersed  with  agricultural  plains,  all 
watered  by  countless  streams,  though  but  few  of  them  are  of 
navigable  size.  There  are  great  lakes,  however,  one  of  them, 
Lake  Taupo,  covering  an  area  of  250  square  miles.  Rain  is 
abundant,  and  the  climate  is  not  unlike  that  of  England.  All 
the  grains,  grasses,  and  fruits  pertaining  to  temperate  climes, 
and  all  the  domesticated  animals  of  civilization  here  prosper 
in  a  high  degree,  wheat  and  barley  being  conspicuous.  There 
are  extensive  coal  and  gold  quartz  deposits. 

The  true  discoverer  of  New  Zealand,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
Tasman,  who  was  there  in  1642,  hence  Tasmania.  But  Cook 
in  1769  was  the  first  European  to  land;  and  as  he  took  formal 
possession  for  George  III,  that  according  to  the  international 
ethics  of  Europe  makes  the  country  England's,  so  long  as  she 
is  strong  enough  to  hold  it.  The  natives  are  Maoris,  of  Poly- 
nesian instincts  and  traditions,  accustomed  in  times  past  to 
human  flesh  as  food,  and  delighting  like  the  rest  of  humanity 
in  killing  each  other.  The  scenery  of  New  Zealand  is  unsur- 
passed by  that  of  any  temperate  clime.  The  coasts  of  Japan 
and  Guatemala  are  perfect,  and  though  unlike  either,  New 
Zealand  is -equally  charming,  owing  to  the  great  rainfall  and 
the  absence  of  cold.  The  New  Zealand  province  of  Auckland 
is  rich  in  gold  and  timber,  with  some  coal.  The  city  of  Auck- 
land is  well  laid  out,  and  adorned  with  the  usual  paraphernalia 
of  progress.  It  is  expected  that  in  the  group  of  English  col- 
onies in  the  southwest  of  the  Pacific,  comprised  under  the 
general  term  of  Australasia,  there  will  develop  a  high  and 
advanced  type  of  Anglo-saxon  civilization.  Thus  far  thinly 
peopled,  large  areas  being  void  of  population,  there  is  room 
for  many  millions  Though  there  is  an  abundance  of  good 
agricultural  land  ready  for  cultivation,  there  are  parts  of 
comparatively  little  value,  and  other  parts,  like  the  so-called 
desert  lands  of  America,  which  will  grow  almost  any  kind  of 
vegetation  if  sufficiently  watered.  Australian  federation  is 
slowly  but  surely  progressing.  The  refusal  of  New  South 


THE  PACIFIC   OCEAN   AND   ITS   BORDERS     197 

Wales  to  accept  the  proposed  constitution  retarded  matters 
somewhat.  On  the  other  hand,  parliamentary  elections  in- 
dicate the  near  approach  of  the  federal  union  of  Australia. 
These  colonies  have  probably  advanced  as  far  in  democratic 
freedom  as  any  other  people  in  the  world;  in  nearly  all  of 
their  legislative  bodies  the  upper  house  is  omitted,  the  ma- 
jority of  a  single  chamber  being  absolute. 

Beautiful  indeed  to  the  eye  of  the  English  traveller  are 
New  Zealand  and  Tasmania,  but  most  charming  of  all  is  Brit- 
ish Columbia,  with  its  noble  harbors,  its  mountains  rich  in 
metals,  its  grassy  plains  and  fertile  foothills,  its  wheat-produc- 
ing prairies,  its  rivers  lakes  and  seaboard  swarming  with  fish, 
its  forests  of  fine  timber  and  inexhaustible  coal  deposits,  with 
inland  scenery  which  makes  tame  the  grandest  that  Europe 
can  display. 

There  are  conditions  favorable  to  the  expansion  of  Euro- 
pean civilization  in  other  regions  than  China.  Several  of  the 
South  American  countries,  where  no  progress  is  being  made 
in  science  industry  or  government,  are  already  attracting  the 
attention  of  those  who  make  it  their  affair  to  regenerate  and 
repartition  the  world. 

What  would  happen  were  all  the  towns  round  the  Pacific 
like  Genoa,  Amsterdam,  or  Salem  of  old?  What  would  hap- 
pen if  one  in  fifty  of  our  Pacific  seaports  possessed  the  men 
and  genius,  the  intelligence  industry  and  activity,  of  some  of 
the  ancient  seats  of  commercial  empire?  Such  a  rise  and 
overturning  and  awakening  and  development,  intellectual 
and  industrial,  moral  and  political,  as  the  world  has  never  yet 
seen.  Most  of  us,  like  Mr  Micawber,  wait  for  something  to 
turn  up,  for  some  persons  or  influence,  other  than  ourselves  or 
outside  of  our  efforts,  to  bring  about  the  means  of  progress 
and  wealth,  instead  of  doing  and  achieving  in  our  own  proper 
mind  and  person. 

The  leading  men  of  our  Pacific  coast  should  be  of  excep- 
tional quality,  being  the  successors  and  survivors  of  a  com- 
munity of  picked  men,  who  came  early  to  the  gold-fields  and 
agricultural  districts  and  succeeded  where  others  failed,  and 
who  survived  as  seemingly  the  fittest.  Never  was  a  grander 
opportunity  for  men  having  the  energy  and  ability, — for  men 
of  the  kind  that  built  Chicago,  and  are  now  building  scores  of 


198  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

cities  and  hundreds  of  railway  lines  in  various  parts, — to  come 
forward  and  take  possession  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  industrially 
and  commercially,  and  so  dominate  the  western  seaboard  of 
the  United  States  as  to  make  it  absolutely  the  greatest  coun- 
try in  the  world,  and  themselves  the  wealthiest  and  most 
beneficial  of  men. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

INTEBOOEANIO   COMMUIUICATON 

DURING  the  two  decades  which  elapsed  from  the  discovery 
vf  America  to  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  European 
co?mographers  and  navigators  were  puzzled  in  regard  to  sev- 
tral  matters.  First,  this  new  land,  is  it  continent,  or  island, 
or  archipelago?  If  the  last,  which  seemed  for  a  time  most 
probable,  then  the  islands,  or  groups  of  islands,  must  lie 
scattered  along  the  east  coast  of  Asia,  whose  existence  had 
been  reported  by  early  travellers  overland  across  Asia,  and  by 
navigators  from  the  Indian  ocean  to  the  Spice  islands, — per- 
haps they  were  the  Zipangu  of  Polo,  or,  which  would  be 
nearer  the  proper  latitude,  the  constellation  of  isles  spoken  of 
by  Ptolemy  as  lying  between  the  China  sea  and  the  Indian 
ocean,  and  which  we  now  know  as  the  Philippines,  Java,  Su- 
matra, and  their  thousand  satellites.  Secondly,  if  these  were 
the  Asiatic  isles  as  reported,  obviously  there  were  many  chan- 
nels or  water  ways  between  them  leading  to  the  continent. 

There  was  mystery  attending  it,  whatever  hypothesis  might 
be  adopted,  whether  this  should  be  called  the  true  India,  or 
regarded  as  some  land  intervening.  Polo  had  reported 
Zipangu  as  an  island  1,500  miles  from  the  mainland;  and 
there  might  be  other  islands,  at  a  greater  or  less  distance  from 
Cathay,  an  ocean  full  of  them.  The  land  which  had  been 
found  was  about  where  the  discoverers  expected  to  find  it; 
the  world,  as  they  measured  it,  was  smaller  than  it  is  in  reality; 
and  then  to  say  that  besides  a  great  continent,  a  vast  sea  lay 
between  them  and  Asia,  would  have  been  an  idea  too  great 
to  grasp.  It  remained  to  be  finally  brought  home  to  the  mind 
of  Magellan  during  his  long  and  perilous  voyage  into  the  un- 
known, reckoning  his  leagues  by  the  number  of  dead  dropped 
into  the  sea. 

It  was  exasperating  to  these  early  navigators,  this  long  wall 

199 


200  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

of  land  which  so  persistently  obstructed  their  passage  to  the 
khan's  kingdom  which  they  so  desired  to  reach.  And  when 
Magellan,  the  first  and  only  one  to  find  a  way  through  the 
continent,  passed  into  his  strait,  he  could  of  course  form  no 
conception  of  the  extent  of  the  land  he  saw  lying  on  his  left. 
It  might  be  a  large  island,  this  Tierra  del  Fuego  as  he  named 
it,  or  it  might  be  a  small  or  large  continent,  extending  part  or 
all  the  way  to  and  around  the  south  pole.  Of  one  thing  he 
was  sure,  for  by  this  time  it  had  been  well  searched,  that 
there  was  no  break  in  the  land  between  Florida  and  where  he 
entered  his  strait.  Further  than  that  he  knew  nothing,  ex- 
cept that  this  must  be  a  great  sea,  as  it  was  probably  part  of 
the  one  seen  by  Balboa  1,500  leagues  to  the  northward  of 
where  he  then  sailed. 

For  many  years  afterward,  however,  the  search  was  con- 
tinued, more  particularly  in  the  north,  where  explorations 
progressed  more  slowly,  the  southern  continent  soon  becom- 
ing pretty  well  known  to  those  who  followed  the  track  of 
Magellan  in  his  new  route  to  India.  Long  indeed  was  the 
effort  continued,  and  many  were  the  false  reports  made;  and 
when  a  way  was  finally  discovered  round  the  northern  end  of 
this  line  of  land  which  lay  stretched  out  in  ocean  almost  from 
one  end  of  the  earth  to  the  other,  it  was  found  to  be  worth- 
less to  commerce.  Eobert  McClure,  sailing  from  England  in 
1850  and  wintering  near  Melville  sound,  was  the  first  to  make 
the  northwest  passage,  328  years  after  Magellan  made  the 
southwest  passage;  while  the  northeast  passage  was  made  by 
Nordenskiold,  in  1879,  326  years  after  the  first  attempt  was 
made  by  Willoughby  in  1553. 

Apocryphal  voyages  to  the  Northwest  in  search  of  a  strait 
from  the  Pacific  to  Hudson  bay  and  the  Atlantic  were  set 
forth  from  time  to  time,  like  the  pretended  discoveries  of 
Juan  de  Fuca  as  given  to  geography  in  1596  by  Michael  Lok, 
an  Englishman,  and  printed  in  Purchas,  His  Pilgrimes,  in 
1625.  Fuca  was  a  Greek  whom  Lok  met  in  Venice,  and  be- 
tween them  they  made  out  a  good  story,  which  was  believed 
for  a  hundred  years  or  so,  that  being  long  for  even  the  truth 
to  endure  at  the  present  day.  Fuca  had  been  forty  years  a 
pilot  in  the  Spanish  West  India  and  Pacific  service,  he  said, 
and  was  on  board  the  galleon  captured  by  Cavendish  off  Cali- 
fornia in  1587.  Then  he  was  sent  north  to  fortify  the  strait 


INTEROCEANIC   COMMUNICATION  201 

of  Anian  against  the  English,  which  statement  answered  as 
well  as  another,  no  one  then  knowing  that  there  was  no  strait 
and  no  Englishmen  there.  Fuca's  falsehood  was  rewarded  by 
giving  to  the  entrance  to  Puget  sound  his  name,  which  it 
bears  to  this  day,  an  honor  such  as  is  the  too  frequent  reward 
of  a  lie  well  told.  Fuca  said  his  strait  was  100  miles  wide  at 
the  entrance;  he  carefully  mapped  it,  filling  up  the  blank 
spaces  around  with  cities  of  the  plain,  as  Quivira,  and  mon- 
sters of  the  deep,  such  as  all  mythical  geography  then  con- 
tained; finally,  sailing  this  strait  for  twenty  days  he  came  to 
the  Atlantic  ocean.  This  same  Anian  strait  was  first  placed 
further  south,  where  it  would  cut  through  the  continent  at 
about  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  river;  but  as  the  southern 
coast  became  explored,  and  it  became  known  that  no  such 
passage-way  existed,  rather  than  lose  altogether  so  interesting 
a  feature,  and  so  betray  their  ignorance,  the  map-makers  kept 
shoving  it  further  north,  until  they  finally  got  it  up  to  Bering 
strait,  where  it  will  probably  remain. 

The  Wytfliet-Ptolemy  maps  of  1597  assisted  to  perpetuate 
mythical  geography,  being  filled  with  fanciful  conjectures 
received  as  fact  by  the  scholars.  In  his  Book  of  Sea  Heroes, 
1598,  Conrad  Low  gives  a  general  map  supposed  to  be  original, 
yet  copied  from  Ortelius  and  Ptolemy,  in  which  the  kingdom 
of  California  is  placed  near  the  north  pole,  by  the  large  strait 
of  Anian,  which  separates  Asia  from  America.  Then  there 
were  the  stories  told  by  Torquemada  and  Father  Ascension; 
the  tale  of  the  wonderful  island  of  Zinogaba,  rich  in  pearls; 
the  story  of  Maldonado,  who  in  1588  sailed  from  Labrador 
into  the  Polar  sea,  and  through  the  strait  of  Anian  into  the 
Pacific;  the  stories  of  Father  Zarate  Salmeron,  of  Pierre 
d'  Avity  and  Penalosa,  of  fathers  Kino  and  Salvatierra,  of  Ad- 
miral Bartholomew  de  Fonte,  whose  letter  appeared  in  the 
London  Memoirs  for  the  Curious,  in  1708,  and  others,  which 
if  told  in  full  would  fill  a  volume. 

Whence  it  appears  that  this  matter  of  interoceanic  com- 
munication, which  is  now  so  plain  to  the  members  of  congress, 
who  would  dig  the  ditch  and  have  done  with  it  if  their  all- 
opposing  politicians  and  the  railway  magnates  did  but  gra- 
ciously permit,  was  for  a  century  or  two  a  great  mystery,  which, 
like  all  mysteries  that  cannot  be  fathomed,  men  translated  to 
suit  their  fancy,  stoutly  asserting  the  same  as  fact,  and  so 


202  THE  NEW    PACIFIC 

far  as  the  use  or  effect  of  their  knowledge  went,  was  perhaps 
to  them  as  good  as  fact.  By  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  Atlantic  coast  was  known  northward  only  to  lati- 
tude 60°,  and  the  Pacific  coast  to  latitude  40°,  yet  there  are 
many  maps  of  the  region  beyond  drawn  prior  to  1550.  Honest 
old  Sebastian  Cabot  stated  squarely  before  the  century  began, 
"  And  understanding  by  reason  of  the  Sphere  that  if  I  should 
saile  by  the  Northwest  I  should  by  a  shorter  tract  come  into 
India,  not  thinking  to  finde  any  other  land  then  that  of 
Cathay,  and  from  thence  to  turne  toward  India,  but  after 
certaine  dayes  I  found  that  the  land  ranne  towards  the  North, 
which  was  to  mee  a  great  displeasure." 

Leaving  the  Northern  Mystery  and  returning  to  sober 
statements,  we  find  that  for  a  period  of  400  years  efforts  have 
been  made  to  obtain  a  water-way  through  the  American  con- 
tinent. Columbus  spent  the  later  years  of  his  life  in  search 
of  a  strait,  before  Vasco  Nunez  ascertained  that  there  was  a 
great  ocean  so  near  at  hand.  Passage  was  attempted  by  the 
Atrato  river  from  ancient  Darien.  Angelo  Saavedra  proposed 
to  cut  a  waterway  through  the  isthmus  of  Panama  as  early  as 
1520,  and  not  long  afterward  Cortes  had  the  isthmus  of 
Tehuantepec  surveyed  for  a  canal.  Antonio  Galvao  in  1550 
submitted  four  different  schemes  for  a  canal.  The  Spanish 
cories  in  1814  ordered  work  begun  at  Tehuantepec,  but  inde- 
pendence intervened  to  prevent;  and  yet  a  survey  was  there 
made  in  1821,  and  to  Jose  de  Garray  in  1842  was  given  a  con- 
cession to  construct  a  canal,  and  there  the  matter  dropped. 
President  Bolivar  instituted  an  examination  of  the  Panama 
isthmus  for  canal  construction,  as  did  the  Frenchman  Garella, 
and  others. 

Then  came  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,,  and  the  con- 
struction, on  the  Panama  isthmus,  of  the  first  railway  across 
the  continent  of  America,  from  ocean  to  ocean.  This,  indeed, 
was  a  great  event,  though  the  distance  was  only  48  miles. 
The  work  was  completed,  at  the  cost  of  much  money  and 
many  human  lives;  in  1855,  and  thereafter  40,000  passengers 
were  annually  conveyed  across  this  narrow  neck  of  land  at  a 
fare  of  $25  each.  The  canal  of  M.  de  Lesseps  was  to  follow  the 
route  of  the  railway,  which  indeed  was  purchased  by  the 
French  company.  The  estimated  cost  of  the  canal  by  the 
de  Lesseps  company,  which  took  form  in  1881  as  the  Inter- 


INTEROCEANIC  COMMUNICATION  203 

oceanic  Canal  company  of  Panama,  was  600,000,000  francs, 
but  which  failed  as  every  previous  attempt  had  failed. 

Charles  V  was  thoroughly  interested  in  the  project  of  a 
waterway  across  the  Panama  isthmus.  When  he  first  saw 
mapped  the  Darien  country  he  was  struck  with  the  near  ap- 
proach of  the  heads  of  streams  flowing  in  opposite  directions, 
and  he  soon  formed  a  plan  to  unite  the  Rio  Grande  with  the 
Chagre,  and  Andagoya,  who  made  an  expedition  to  Biru  in 
1522,  was  directed  to  make  a  survey,  with  estimate  of  cost. 
His  report  was  unfavorable.  At  that  time,  a  ship  arriving  at 
Xombre  de  Dios  discharged  cargo  into  flat-bottomed  boats 
which  ascended  the  Chagre  to  Cruces,  distant  about  six 
leagiies  from  the  South  sea.  There  muleteers  took  the  mer- 
chandise in  charge  for  Panama. 

Monte  jo,  governor  of  Honduras,  in  1539  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  emperor  urging  the  construction  of  a  road  for  pack- 
animals  between  the  bay  of  Fonseca  and  Puerto  de  Caballos, 
by  way  of  Comayaga,  the  distance  being  32  leagues.  He 
claimed  this  to  be  a  more  favorable  route  for  merchandise  be- 
tween Spain  and  Peru  than  that  via  Panama,  the  harbors  on 
either  side  being  better  and  the  climate  less  unhealthy.  The 
governor  asked  for  negroes  to  do  the  work,  as  the  natives  were 
not  reliable  laborers.  In  1554  Juan  Garcia  de  Hermosillo  was 
commissioned  by  the  king  to  inquire  into  the  merits  of  the 
respective  routes,  and  he  reported  in  favor  of  Honduras. 
Still  the  interest  in  the  canal  was  kept  up,  for  this  same  year 
we  find  the  old  chronicler  Gomara  writing,  "  It  is  true  that 
mountains  obstruct  these  passages,  but  if  there  be  mountains 
there  be  also  hands;  let  but  the  resolve  be  formed  to  make  the 
passage  and  it  can  be  made." 

In  early  times  several  millions  were  spent  on  a  canal  from 
Cartagena  bay  to  Calamar,  on  the  Magdalena  river;  it  is  called 
el  dique  de  Cartagena,  but  never  proved  successful,  because 
the  work  was  not  properly  done,  and  navigation  is  obstructed 
by  the  batata  grass  which  fills  the  canal. 

The  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  is  130  miles  wide  at  its  nar- 
rowest point,  where,  besides  lakes  and  lagoons,  are  the  rivers 
Coatzacoalcos  and  Tehuantepec,  emptying  into  the  bays  of 
Campeche  and  Tehuantepec  respectively.  The  plan  here  was 
to  enlarge  and  connect  these  two  rivers,  and  it  was  seriously 
discussed  at  various  times,  and  surveys  made. 


204  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

It  was  proposed  in  France,  in  1791,  by  La  Bastide,  to  cut 
a  channel  from  the  gulf  of  Nicoya  to  the  Sapoa,  widening 
that  river  between  the  lake  and  the  gulf  of  Papagayo,  but  the 
French  revolution  drove  the  matter  from  the  minds  of  the 
projectors.  So  it  was  in  Spain,  in  1814,  when  survey  and  con- 
struction were  decreed  by  the  cortes,  subsequent  political 
events  rendering  the  decree  inoperative. 

The  attention  of  the  Spanish  court  was  for  many  years 
occupied  by  projects  for  a  ship  canal  through  Nicaragua. 
Search  was  made  for  the  outlets  of  lakes  Managua  and  Nic- 
aragua by  Pedrarias  Davila,  first  governor  of  that  region  under 
the  crown  of  Spain.  The  falls  of  the  San  Juan  were  carefully 
examined  by  Este  and  Rojas,  officers  of  the  king,  and  a  water- 
way round  them  for  ships  recommended.  Not  only  were  the 
Spaniards  interested  in  this  scheme,  but  also  the  French  and 
English,  the  latter  even  contemplating  the  conquest  of  the 
country.  The  contrivance  of  locks  being  then  little  under- 
stood, Galisteo  in  1781  declared  the  plan  impracticable. 

"  If  the  isthmus  of  Panama  is  cut  through  some  day  "  said 
Decres  to  First-consul  Napoleon,  who  asked  his  ministers'  ad- 
vice about  the  cession  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States,  "  it 
will  occasion  an  immense  revolution  in  navigation,  so  that  a 
voyage  around  the  world  will  be  easier  than  the  longest  cruise 
to-day.  Louisiana  will  be  on  the  line  of  this  new  route,  and 
its  possession  will  be  of  inestimable  value.  Don't  give  it  up." 

It  is  now  three  quarters  of  a  century  since  the  attention  of 
the  United  States  was  first  directed  to  the  subject  in  1825. 
After  considering  it  for  a  full  decade,  the  president  was  re- 
quested by  the  senate,  in  1835,  to  enter  into  negotiations  with 
the  Central  American  states  and  New  Granada,  having  in 
view  treaties  for  the  protection  of  Americans  who  should  at- 
tempt opening  communication  between  the  two  oceans.  With 
New  Granada  a  treaty  was  made  in  1846,  which  gave  the 
United  States  right  of  way  across  the  Isthmus,  but  instead 
of  a  canal  a  railway  was  built. 

Let  us  hope,  as  regards  a  ship  canal,  a  short  line  railway 
across  the  continental  desert,  or  irrigating  and  land-reclaim- 
ing canals  and  systems,  that  hereafter  when  the  government 
pays  for  a  thing  it  will  keep  it,  and  operate  it,  and  not  hand 
it  over  to  private  persons  to  be  used  to  grind  the  people  who 
contributed  to  the  construction.  As  to  the  routes  for  a  ship 


INTEKOCEANIC   COMMUNICATION  205 

canal,  the  commercial  world  will  be  satisfied  with  either; 
probably  to  all  except  North  America  the  Panama  route  would 
be  preferable,  being  more  central  and  shorter;  through  Nic- 
aragua, however,  will  best  suit  the  United  States,  being  nearer, 
and  therefore  more  useful. 

Cornelius  Yanderbilt,  Joseph  L.  White,  and  others,  in  order 
to  make  more  secure  their  exclusive  privilege  for  conveying 
freight  and  passengers  across  Nicaragua,  organized  in  1849 
the  American  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ship  Canal  company,  prob- 
ably having  no  intention  then  or  at  any  time  to  construct  such 
a  waterway.  A  survey  was  made,  and  in  1851  White  secured 
a  charter  from  the  Nicaraguan  government  authorizing  the 
formation  of  another  company  for  the  same  purpose,  com- 
posed of  the  same  members  but  with  a  different  name.  No 
wonder  that  Nicaragua,  wearied  at  the  long  and  useless  delay 
of  congress  to  take  action,  should  permit  the  privilege  to  pass 
into  private  hands.  While  it  is  better  for  the  United  States 
government  to  control  the  canal,  it  is  of  less  consequence  to 
commerce  who  builds  it  than  that  it  is  built. 

Nothing  exemplifies  more  forcibly  the  great  awakening  of 
the  American  people  incident  to  the  war  with  Spain  than  the 
revolution  of  opinion  regarding  the  importance  of  an  inter- 
oceanic  ship  canal.  Except  upon  the  Pacific  coast,  and  among 
those  more  especially  interested  on  the  Atlantic  side,  there 
was  a  general  apathy  as  to  the  question,  especially  in  the  mid- 
continent  states,  where  it  was  looked  upon  as  a  measure  to 
benefit  the  coasts  at  the  expense  of  the  interior.  Politicians 
arrayed  themselves  against  it  for  personal  reasons,  and  there 
were  statesmen  and  journalists  who  saw  in  it  only  a  scheme 
for  swindling  the  government.  But  with  the  war,  and  the 
expansion  of  ideas  which  followed,  all  this  was  changed. 

As  to  the  necessity  of  the  canal  to  commerce,  or  the  feasi- 
bility of  constructing  it,  the  time  has  passed  for  such  discus- 
sion. As  to  its  relative  value  to  one  part  of  the  world  and  to  an- 
other, it  will  prove  nearer  of  equal  value  to  all  than  might  ap- 
pear at  the  first  glance.  Whatever  helps  London,  helps  all  who 
do  business  with  London,  and  that  is  all  the  world.  I  cannot 
say  much  for  the  intelligence  of  the  midcontinent  man  who 
claims  that  because  his  town  is  not  a  seaport  he  will  derive  no 
benefit  from  a  ship  canal.  Let  him  consider  that  an  inter- 
oceanic  waterway  across  any  isthmus  of  America  will  make 


206  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

not  only  a  seaport,  but  a  Pacific  seaport,  of  all  the  cities  in 
the  United  States  which  are  situated  on  or  near  navigable 
waters.  From  all  the  towns  on  all  the  principal  lakes  and 
rivers,  lakes  Michigan  Ontario  and  Erie,  rivers  Ohio  Missis- 
sippi and  Missouri,  and  a  score  of  others,  vessels  of  medium 
tonnage  will  ply  direct  to  San  Francisco,  Yokohama,  Hong- 
kong, Manila,  Sydney,  Valparaiso,  and  every  other  Pacific  sea- 
port; and  where  water  communication  is  not  already  open  for 
access  to  the  sea,  the  canal  once  constructed  such  communica- 
tion will  soon  be  opened,  and  there  will  be  such  a  revolution  in 
the  world's  commerce  as  is  now  not  even  dreamed  of. 

As  to  the  relative  benefits  to  be  derived  by  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  coasts,  they  lie  unquestionably  more  largely  with 
the  former.  I  know  that  California  is  expecting  the  millen- 
nium when  the  canal  comes,  as  was  anticipated  when  the  first 
overland  railway  was  finished.  The  millennium  came,  but 
not  to  California;  it  came  to  certain  railway  monopolists,  who 
pocketed  the  money  given  them  by  the  government  to  build 
the  road,  while  grinding  as  much  more  as  possible  out  of  the 
country  tributary  to  the  road,  throwing  the  debt  of  construc- 
tion, with  interest,  finally  back  on  the  government.  I  never 
have  known  another  instance  in  the  history  of  railroad  build- 
ing, where  a  government  paid  for  building  the  road,  and  then 
gave  it  to  the  builders  to  use  for  the  destruction  of  the  people 
it  was  supposed  to  benefit.  California  would  be  better  off  to- 
day had  none  of  the  present  overland  railways  ever  been 
built.  From  the  day  the  Central  Pacific  ran  an  engine 
through  Market  street,  in  San  Francisco,  as  the  signal  that 
the  road  was  finished,  the  poor  sheep  that  crowded  the  thor- 
oughfare bleating  their  joy, — from  that  day  to  this  the  iron 
heel  of  commercial  despotism  has  never  been  lifted  from  this 
country.  And  if  now  Californians  take  the  matter  of  a  ship 
canal  as  tamely  as  they  took  the  railroad  infamy,  the  water- 
way will  be  of  little  benefit,  but  rather  a  disadvantage,  in  car- 
rying traffic  directly  through  it,  and  away  from  us,  instead  of 
by  our  door.  There  will,  of  course,  be  our  share  of  the  general 
benefit  which  will  accrue  to  all  the  countries  bordering  on  the 
Pacific,  with  overland  freight  reductions  on  certain  classes  of 
goods;  but  to  derive  a  proper  benefit  from  any  ship  canal 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  we  shall  have  to  rise  and  meet 
the  occasion,  by  establishing  on  our  shores  full  lines  of  all 


1NTEHOCEANIC   COMMUNICATION  207 

kinds  of  manufacturing  industries,  with  the  closest  com- 
mercial relations  with  every  country  bordering  on  the  Pacific. 
In  other  words  we  shall  be  compelled  to  exercise  the  same  in- 
telligence, energy,  and  liberality  that  has  built  up  so  many 
large  and  flourishing  cities  and  sections  throughout  the  entire 
United  States  save  in  California  alone. 

I  have  only  to  remark  in  conclusion,  as  I  have  elsewhere 
intimated  in  this  volume,  that  as  a  business  proposition, 
clearly  apparent  to  a  business  man,  the  United  States  govern- 
ment at  this  juncture  can  better  afford  to  spend  some  money 
for  national  advancement  than  not  to  do  so.  As  we  figure  it 
up,  we  are  the  greatest  and  the  richest  nation  on  earth,  the 
most  enterprising,  brave,  and  humane,  a  nation  of  boundless 
potentialities,  which  in  my  soul  I  believe  to  be  true;  and  yet, 
seeing  how  freely  the  public  money  is  spent  on  what  is  of  so 
little  use  to  the  public;  on  political  jobbery;  on  private 
schemes  for  the  personal  advantage  of  our  good  patriots;  on 
popular  fads  as  soldiers'  pensions  and  public  schools  for  the 
piano;  on  army  and  navy  supplies,  necessary  as  humanity  is 
made,  but  tending  in  no  wise  to  the  upbuilding  of  the  indus- 
trial interests  of  the  nation;  when  I  see  how  easy  the  mill- 
ions come  for  foolish  and  unnecessary  things,  and  how  dif- 
ficult it  is  to  get  any  thing  done  for  the  country,  such  as  the 
construction  of  this  canal,  which  in  truth  is  too  small  a  matter 
to  haggle  over  so  long,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  we  need  some 
men  at  the  head  of  affairs  whose  minds  are  not  laid  out  on 
such  narrow  lines,  and  whose  souls  are  not  wholly  absorbed 
in  the  selfish  seekings  of  party  and  place.  It  is  the  business 
of  the  government,  for  example,  if  the  government  has  any 
business  further  than  the  comfortable  support  of  the  poli- 
ticians, to  reclaim  its  waste  places  and  desert  lands  by  systems 
of  irrigation,  which  with  less  than  the  cost  of  the  late  Span- 
ish war,  would  add  one-fifth  to  the  agricultural  area  of  the 
United  States,  or  three  times  as  much  as  we  get  by  all  the 
tropical  islands  secured.  These  now  waste  lands,  which  can 
be  made  as  rich  as  any  Egypt  by  the  application  of  water,  of 
which  there  is  an  abundant  supply  at  hand,  lie  in  the  heart 
of  the  continent,  dividing  the  republic  into  two  parts,  be- 
tween which  commercial  intercourse  is  restricted  to  the  arbi- 
trary rule  of  railway  monopolists,  who  constructed  their  roads 
with  funds  furnished  by  the  government,  and  now  used  with 


208  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

government  permission  to  crush  the  industrial  life  of  the 
people  who  are  forced  to  use  them.  A  few  hundred  millions 
more  of  debt  just  now  would  not  embarrass  this  nation,  if  the 
money  instead  of  being  wasted  in  political  clap-trap,  went  for 
the  promotion  of  public  necessities,  as  a  merchant  marine,  a 
government  railroad  across  the  desert,  a  ship  canal,  and  like 
investments,  which  would  yield  to  both  government  and  peo- 
ple a  large  and  quick  return  in  wealth,  power,  and  prestige. 
Five  hundred  artesian  wells  would  be  worth  more  to  the 
United  States  than  five  thousand  dead  Filipinos,  and  would 
not  cost  as  much.  The  price  of  three  battleships  would  bring 
the  waters  of  Lake  Tahoe  to  San  Francisco,  fertilizing  a  thou- 
sand farms  on  the  way,  and  adding  millions  to  the  taxable 
property  of  the  state.  And  there  are  many  such  needful  de- 
velopments west  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  awaiting  the  atten- 
tion of  government. 

Many  volumes  have  been  written  on  the  subject  of  interoceanic  com- 
munication ;  many  men  have  spent  their  lives  in  studying  it ;  nearly  all 
the  principal  governments  of  Europe  have  been  interested  in  some  one  or 
more  of  the  many  plans  brought  forward,  and  several  of  them  have 
had  surveys  made  at  different  points.  The  governments  of  Netherland 
America  have  lived  for  centuries  on  the  hope  that  this  work  would  some 
day  be  done.  Those  who  should  wish  to  pursue  further  this  interesting 
study  I  refer  to  the  following  authorities.  Garella,  Projet  d'un  canal, 
11-194,  230;  Chevalier,  Pan.  117-22;  Reichardt,  Cent.  Am  ,  164-5;  Cul- 
len's  Isth.  Darien  Ship  Canal,  19 ;  Nicaragua,  Gaceta,  Nov.  18,  1848 ; 
Liot's  Panama,  Nicaragua,  and  Tehuantepec,  6-12;  Ramirez,  Mem.,  1- 
108;  Gar  ay,  Survey  Isth.  Tehuan.,  3-188 ;  Hakluyt,  Voy.  ,  iii;  Gomara, 
Hist.  Ind.,  37-89;  Duflot  de  Mofras,  Explor.  de  I' Oregon,  119;  Nouvelle 
Annales  des  Voy.,  ci,  iii,  8-9;  Cortes,  Diario,  1813,  xix,  392;  Robles, 
Prov.  Chiapa,  17;  Bustamante  Med.  Pacific,  M  S  ii  Sup.  15;  Herrera 
Hist.  Ind.,  iv,  234;  Rivera  Gobern.  Mex.,  ii,  116;  Ward's  Mex. ,  i,  311 ; 
Dublan  and  Lozano,  Legist.  Mej.,  i,  738-9;  Manero,  Notic.  Hist.,  51-6; 
Davis'  Report,  5-6 ;  Mex.  Diario  Debates,  10th  Cong.,  i,  273-1930,  passim ; 
Frobel,  Aus.  Am.,  i,  144,  241  ;  Squier's  Nic.,  658 ;  Humboldt,  Essai  Polit., 
i,  1-17;  Niles'  Reg.  xxx,  447;  London  Geog.  Soc.  Jour.,  xiv,  127-9; 
Scherzer,  Cent.  Am.,  241 ;  Belly,  Nic.,  i,  84-7,  137;  Sampson's  Cent.  Am., 
7-18;  Maruro,  Mem.  Hist.,  1-47;  Billow,  Nic.,  44-57;  U.  S.  Gov.  Doc., 
Sen.  Miscel  Cong.  30,  Sess.  1,  no  80,  69-75;  Id..  H.  Ex.  Doc.  Cong.  31, 
Seas.  1,  no  75,  50-326,  passim;  Marcoleta,  Min.  Nic.,  1-32;  Hunt's  Mer. 
Mag.,  Iv,  31-48;  Ivi,  32-4;  Panama  Star  and  Herald,  Dec  5,  1885; 
Andagoya,  Carta  at  Rey,  in  Squier's  M  S  S,  xi,  8  ;  Juan  and  Ulloa,  Voy., 
i,  94;  Fitz-Roy,  in  Land.  Geog.,  Soc.,  Jour.,  xx,  170,  178;  Ariz.  Darien 
M  S,  11-12  ;  Philosophical  Trans.  1830  ;  Arosemena,  Examen,  8-34; 


1NTEROCEANIC   COMMUNICATION  209 

Interoc.  Canal  and  Monroe  Doc.t  23-4;  Panama  Gaceta  1st.,  Sept.  20, 
1841;  G.  B.  Watts,  in  Am.  Geog.  and  Stat.  Soc.  Bull,  i,  pt  iii,  64-80; 
Datos  Biog.,  in  Cartas  de  Ind.,  761;  Tucker's  Monroe  Doc.,  43-4;  Bid- 
well's  Isth.  Pan.,  299-308,  397-417;  Strain's  Inter.  Com.,  18-27;  Mex. 
Anales  Min.  Fomento,  i,  83-88;  Selfige,  DarienExplor.,  U.  S.  Gov.,  Doc., 
Cong.  43,  Sess.  3;  Bulletin  du  Canal  Oceanique,  1883-4;  Sullivan's 
Problems  fntero.  Communic.,  Washington,  1883;  Ammen  s  Interoc.  Ship 
Canal,  Phil.  1880;  La  Estrella  de  Pan.  July  21,  1884;  Guatemala  Mem. 
Sec.  Fomento,  1880-5 ;  Pirn's  Gate  of  the  Pac.,  313-21 ;  Laferriere  de  Paris 
a  Guat.,  101-6;  Costa  Rica  Informe  Sec.  Goberu.)  1873-4;  Colombia 
Diario  Ofic.,  1874. 


CHAPTER    IX 

RESOURCES    OF    THE    PACIFIC 

VAST  as  are  the  resources  of  the  countries  round  the  Pa- 
cific, they  present  themselves  at  the  present  time  in  the  form 
of  industrial  potentialities  rather  than  of  concrete  wealth. 
True,  there  are  here,  with  the  limitless  natural  wealth  and 
possibilities,  money  and  property  in  abundance,  but  accumu- 
lated stores  of  riches  such  as  are  found  in  older  communities 
we  must  not  look  for  in  new  and  undeveloped  regions.  Speak- 
ing generally,  if  one  may  speak  generally  of  an  area  of  land 
and  water  extending  from  pole  to  pole  and  covering  half  the 
earth,  the  soils  here  are  very  like  the  soils  in  the  other  hemi- 
sphere, and  the  flora  and  fauna,  though  differing,  are  much 
the  same.  The  low-lying  lands,  where  there  is  heat  and  moist- 
ure, are  fertile;  the  higher  and  drier  regions  less  so.  There 
are  mountains  and  swamps,  and  some  volcanic  debris  on  which 
plants  grow  reluctantly;  but  there  are  no  great  deserts,  such 
as  are  found  in  the  interior  of  continents,  and  no  large  stretches 
of  land  which  may  not  in  some  way  be  found  of  use  to  man. 

Beginning  at  the  southern  extremity  on  the  American  side, 
we  will  take  a  brief  glance  round  the  arena.  Patagonia  is 
still  largely  in  a  state  of  nature  with  some  good  soil  and  a  fair 
display  of  vegetation;  elsewhere  there  are  places  more  barren 
in  aspect  and  with  trees  dwarfed,  though  the  largest  of  birds 
and  the  longest  of  men  flourish  here,  the  latter  loving  their 
country  as  well  as  if  it  were  a  better  one. 

Both  Chili  and  Bolivia,  and  indeed  the  whole  South  Ameri- 
can seaboard,  produce  largely  of  minerals  for  export,  as  silver, 
gold,  tin,  bismuth,  antimony,  mercury,  lead,  copper,  as  well 
as  borate  of  lime,  sulphur,  and  nitrate  of  soda.  Southern 
Chili  abounds  in  forests,  but  northern  Chili  without  irriga- 
tion is  sterile.  The  southern  section,  which  long  remained  in 
its  primeval  state,  the  government  is  now  opening  to  settle- 

210 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  211 

nieut,  extending  its  railways,  and  establishing  new  towns. 
Every  year  is  held  an  auction  sale  of  government  lands,  which 
bring  from  $1.50  to  $30  an  acre.  Many  Germans  came  to 
Chili  under  a  plan  to  encourage  immigration  which  is  no 
longer  in  force,  being  too  liberal  for  practical  purposes.  Pas- 
sage money  was  loaned  to  the  immigrant,  and  100  acres  of 
land  allotted  him  on  arrival,  with  an  ox  team,  boards  and  nails 
for  a  house,  and  $15  a  month  advanced  him  for  one  year, 
amounting  in  all  to  about  $600,  the  amount  to  be  paid  back 
in  eight  years. 

Though  wheat  is  abundant,  there  is  here  no  such  grain 
country  on  the  Pacific  side  of  South  America  as  is  found  over 
the  Andes  in  Argentina,  which  is  one  of  the  several  granaries 
of  the  world.  From  Rosario  are  shipped  weekly  thousands  of 
tons  of  wheat,  corn,  and  linseed.  The  Chilian  farmers  as  a 
class  are  as  wealthy  as  any  in  the  world,  living  like  feudal 
barons,  with  hacienda  in  lieu  of  castle,  with  broad  acreage, 
hosts  of  retainers,  and  thousands  of  sheep  cattle  and  horses. 
At  the  annual  roundup  of  some  of  these  great  estates,  an  army 
of  cow-boys  are  present,  with  their  captains  and  chiefs  of  all 
grades.  Some  30,000,000  bushels  of  wheat  are  annually 
raised  in  Chili,  and  at  harvesting  a  score  of  American  thresh- 
ing machines  may  be  sometimes  seen  in  operation  on  a  single 
plantation.  While  in  the  United  States  only  31,000  men  own 
farms  of  over  1,000  acres,  in  Chili  few  who  consider  them- 
selves of  any  importance  own  less.  Farms  of  10,000,  20,000 
and  30,000  acres  are  not  uncommon.  Agriculture  is  the  chief 
industry;  half  of  the  population  are  devoted  to  farming,  and 
it  is  not  uncommon  to  find  millionaires  among  the  great  estate 
owners.  Irrigation  is  carried  on  to  a  considerable  extent  from 
mountain  streams.  Some  of  the  farms  are  surrounded  by 
stone  walls,  board  or  wire  fences  being  little  used. 

At  one  time,  during  the  early  mining  period,  Chili  sup- 
plied California  with  almost  her  entire  supply  of  flour,  50  and 
100  pound  sacks  being  then  first  used  by  Americans.  Flour 
from  the  east  came  as  of  old  in  barrels,  from  which  it  had  to 
be  taken  and  sacked  for  mule  transportation  to  the  mines. 

Peru  as  well  as  Brazil  is  a  great  producer  of  raw  material; 
rubber  is  almost  the  currency  of  the  Para  and  Amazon  coun- 
tries. The  tropical  vegetation  of  the  Orinoco  is  gorgeous. 
The  Peruvian  forest?,  where  is  found  the  indiarubber  tree, 


212  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

the  chinchona  or  quinine  tree,  and  varieties  of  vanila  and 
sarsaparilla,  and  through  which  flow  the  great  navigable  rivers 
Maranon  and  Ucayali,  the  latter  600  miles  long,  are  in  the 
tropical  basin  of  the  Amazon,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  cor- 
dillera.  Here  may  be  grown  the  finest  coffee,  sugar,  and  cacao. 
Sugar  is  cultivated  in  the  coast  valleys,  where  cotton  is  in- 
digenous and  also  largely  cultivated.  Other  products  are 
grapes,  olives,  rice,  silk,  and  cochineal.  Grain  and  vegetables 
are  grown  in  the  sierra,  whence  likewise  are  exported  large 
quantities  of  alpaca  and  sheep's  wool. 

On  the  Peruvian  Andes  are  the  wild  vicuna  and  the  do- 
mestic alpaca  and  llama.  There  are  also  black  bear  deer  and 
fox,  and  among  birds  the  condor  and  alcamari,  the  latter  fur- 
nishing the  black  and  white  wing  feather  for  the  head-dress 
of  the  incas.  Myriads  of  sea-birds  frequent  the  lofty  head- 
lands and  adjacent  isles.  Between  fifteen  and  twenty  millions 
of  tons  of  guano  have  been  taken  from  the  Chincha  islands, 
near  the  coast  of  Peru,  for  the  fertilization  of  distant  lands. 
The  supply  is  practically  exhausted.  It  is  because  the  region 
is  rainless,  and  the  deposit  is  thus  enabled  to  retain  its  am- 
monia that  makes  it  so  valuable  as  a  fertilizer.  Along  the 
southern  seaboard  runs  a  deposit  of  nitrate  of  soda,  enough 
to  supply  the  world  for  a  century,  from  which  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  tons  are  annually  exported. 

Guayaquil  is  the  commercial  clearing-house  of  Ecuador,  the 
whole  foreign  commerce  of  the  country  passing  through  this 
port.  In  common  with  Venezuela,  Costa  Rica,  and  Peru,  the 
currency  of  Ecuador  is  on  a  gold  basis.  Freights  from  the 
eastern  United  States  are  so  excessive  that  little  trade  from 
that  quarter  with  Ecuador  need  be  expected  until  there  is  an 
interoceanic  canal.  Under  contract  is  a  government  railway 
to  connect  Guayaquil  and  Quito,  350  miles  in  length,  with  an 
elevation  to  overcome  of  12,200  feet.  This  road  will  open 
to  the  world  a  high  tropical  plateau,  having  a  rich  soil  and  a 
temperate  healthful  climate,  inhabited  by  an  industrious  but 
isolated  people,  with  unlimited  water-power  for  manufactur- 
ing and  streams  for  irrigating  ditches,  and  where  cotton  grows 
wild  and  the  grazing  ranges  are  unrivalled.  The  soil  is  a  vol- 
canic ash,  on  which  grow  in  greatest  luxuriance  cereals  and 
fruits  of  all  kinds  belonging  to  the  temperate  and  tropical 
zones.  Between  this  plateau  and  the  coast  is  a  series  of  val- 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  213 

leys  of  wonderful  fertility,  through  which  the  road  passes  after 
leaving  the  low  malarious  coast,  with  its  plantations  of  cacao 
and  sugarcane,  and  its  groves  of  rubber  and  ivory-nut  trees. 

Agriculture  is  still  carried  on  in  Ecuador  by  the  ancient 
Peruvian  methods,  the  tropical  Indian,  dense  and  debased 
but  industrious  and  peaceable,  ploughing  the  ground  with  a 
stick  of  wood,  threshing  out  the  grain  with  the  branch  of  a 
tree,  spinning  his  own  thread  and  making  his  own  cloth, 
happy  to  be  a  slave  to  the  land  owner  upon  the  peonage  plan 
with  labor  at  from  20  to  30  cents  a  day.  The  Quito  and  Guaya- 
quil railway  enterprise  is  American;  the  proprietary  natives 
care  little  for  modern  methods.  So  great  has  been  the  de- 
struction of  the  wild  rubber-tree  in  Ecuador  by  cutting  them 
down  for  the  gum,  that  its  cultivation  was  started,  and  is 
quite  a  successful  industry.  There  are  in  the  distant  forests 
multitudes  of  rubber-trees  which  have  never  been  touched, 
but  the  difficulties  attending  obtaining  the  gum  and  bringing 
it  to  the  coast  are  serious. 

As  in  Ecuador,  the  uplands  of  Colombia  are  healthful  and 
prolific  of  all  the  plants  necessary  to  man;  the  lowlands,  par- 
ticularly about  the  Panama  isthmus  are  hot  and  in  places 
marshy.  The  soil  on  the  Isthmus  is  apparently  bottomless. 

The  interior  of  Netherland  America  is  a  delightful  region, 
and  one  of  limitless  possibilities,  but  its  development  never 
will  be  great  under  its  present  government  and  possessed  by 
its  present  people.  If  Barrios  had  lived  and  had  his  way, 
like  Diaz  in  Mexico,  he  could  have  made  something  of  the 
whole  five  states  of  Central  America,  as  well  as  of  his  own 
state  of  Guatemala.  When  France  has  finished  with  China, 
she  might  turn  her  attention  this  way,  though  she  came  off 
rather  poorly  in  her  attempt  on  Mexico.  What  can  be  ex- 
pected of  countries  in  a  constant  state  of  war  and  revolution, 
eaten  up  by  imposts  and  impositions,  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  too  lazy  to  labor,  and  their  masters  bent  on  self-en- 
richment on  lines  worse  than  highway  robbery?  As  it  is  now 
these  so-called  republics  are  fit  only  for  despotic  rule.  Not 
long  since  Guatemala  had  a  despot,  and  a  good  despot  too, 
but  he  was  called  away  by  a  bullet  from  the  Salvadorans. 
During  his  reign  the  country  was  prosperous.  The  cities  of 
Alvarado  and  the  Quiches,  Guatemala  and  Quezaltenango, 
supported  fine  shops  filled  with  rich  merchandise.  The  jewel- 


311  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

ry  stores  Mrere  a  sight  indicative  at  once  of  the  wealth  and 
vanity  of  the  inhabitants.  It  was  here  the  coffee  planters, 
grown  suddenly  wealthy  from  large  crops  and  high  prices, 
loved  best  to  spend  their  money,  and  deck  themselves  and 
their  families  and  friends  with  gold  and  gems.  Then  came  a 
fall  in  the  prices  of  products,  depreciation  of  silver  until  ex- 
change on  New  York  ruled  at  250  per  cent  premium,  with  the 
high  customs  duties  and  expenses,  and  the  shops  put  on  a 
dismal  appearance.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  at  some 
future  time  commerce  will  not  require  United  States'  inter- 
vention in  the  affairs  of  Nicaragua  for  the  protection  of  our 
canal  interests.  And  this  may  become  the  entering  wedge 
of  intervention  in  other  Central  and  South  American  coun- 
tries. Europe  could  never  interpose  objections,  having  all  the 
rest  of  the  world  as  a  field  for  her  lootings;  in  view  of  which, 
and  on  further  general  principles,  it  will  be  as  well  for  us  to 
keep  out  of  China. 

Western  Nicaragua  grows  excellent  coffee,  but  owing  to 
the  low  price  obtained,  that  industry  is  to  some  extent  sup- 
planted by  efforts  in  cotton.  Immediately  after  the  civil  war 
quite  a  number  of  cotton  planters  went  from  the  southern 
United  States  to  various  points,  as  Nicaragua  and  Brazil,  in 
Central  and  South  America.  Their  operations  in  some  places 
were  attended  with  success,  not  as  marked  however  in  Nica- 
ragua as  elsewhere,  the  plantations  in  that  quarter  being  aban- 
doned after  a  time.  In  the  mountains  of  Nicaragua  is  some 
good  coffee  land,  and  in  the  upper  valleys  cacao  is  indigenous. 
Large  rosewood,  cedar,  and  mahogany  trees  grow  on  the 
mountain  ridges,  besides  other  valuable  forest  trees  of  com- 
merce, and  medicinal  and  fibrous  plants.  The  railway  from 
Corinto  to  Momotombo,  on  Lake  Managua,  is  owned  by  the 
government,  in  connection  with  small  steamers  on  the  lake. 

Coffee  culture  in  Honduras,  though  in  its  infancy  gives 
good  promise  for  the  future.  While  the  plantations  are  small 
they  are  numerous,  and  may  be  profitably  increased  in  size, 
as  the  soil  is  suitable,  and  the  climate  and  conditions  equal  to 
those  of  Nicaragua,  Guatemala,  and  Costa  Rica,  where  the 
industry  is  large  and  profitable. 

Eubber  culture  is  developing  in  Guatemala.  A  large  tract 
in  Central  America  is  covered  by  the  indigenous  tree,  which 
produces  the  best  quality  of  gum.  The  hot  moist  tropical  sea- 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  215 

board  possesses  the  soil  and  climate  best  adapted  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  plant,  yet  the  wild  tree  avoids  a  too  perpen- 
dicular sun,  and  seeks  the  shade  of  some  larger  tree,  so  that 
in  artificial  culture  the  woods  partially  cleared  have  been 
chosen  as  affording  the  necessary  protection. 

Mexico's  12,000,000  people  have  a  country  which  by  the 
methods  formulated  throughout  the  ages  in  the  old  world 
would  provide  comfortably  for  100,000,000  inhabitants.  In- 
dustrially, the  population  may  be  divided  into  three  classes, 
those  above  work,  those  below  work,  and  those  who  do  the 
work,  each  one  of  the  middle  class  thus  having  to  support 
besides  himself  three  or  five  persons  in  idleness.  As  else- 
where, and  more  perhaps  than  in  other  places,  altitude  and 
latitude  here  unite  to  diversify  and  determine  products. 

The  fibrous  plants  of  Mexico  are  many  and  important. 
Species  of  the  agave,  as  henequen,  ixtle,  lechuguilla,  and  pita, 
are  in  places  the  most  important  products.  Cotton  grows  all 
along  from  Tamaulipas  to  Campeache.  There  are  also  jute, 
ramie,  Spanish  grass  hemp,  and  a  score  of  other  native  textile 
plants  in  which  lies  limitless  hidden  wealth.  The  vanilla  bean 
grows  in  Tehuantepec,  though  its  indigenous  home  is  a  strip 
30  by  90  miles  back  of  Tampico  and  Vera  Cruz.  A  kind  of 
sugarcane  called  canamiel,  or  honey  cane,  is  grown  extensively 
in  half  the  states  of  Mexico.  Cacao  flourishes  in  the  latitude 
of  Oaxaca  and  Tabasco  from  the  Pacific  to  the  gulf.  The 
marine  pine  is  cultivated  for  turpentine,  pitch,  artificial  cam- 
phor, and  vegetable  tar,  and  land  suitable  for  this  culture 
commands  a  higher  price  than  any  other  in  Mexico,  except 
that  on  the  central  table-land  where  the  pulque  plant  is  grown. 

Hops  and  grapes,  both  of  rich  aromatic  quality,  are  raised 
in  several  sections,  with  oranges,  lemons,  bananas,  and  all 
tropical  fruits  in  the  ocean  border  lands.  There  are  many 
large  tobacco  plantations,  and  much  unoccupied  land  suit- 
able for  that  purpose.  Cereals  grow  on  the  table-lands, 
which  however  are  better  adapted  to  grazing.  The  precious 
woods  of  southern  Mexico  are  of  great  value.  Stock-raising  is 
a  large  industry,  and  is  often  attended  by  extensive  irrigation. 

On  the  lower  terraces  facing  the  Pacific  are  hundreds  of 
coffee  plantations,  where  new  trees  are  every  year  coming  into 
bearing.  On  these  terraces  also  the  growing  of  corn  is  in- 
creasing, while  on  the  plateaus,  cattle  sheep  and  horses  are 

raised. 

8 


216  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Where  is  the  poet  who  shall  sing  the  praises  of  maize?  It 
is  surely  indigenous  to  tropical  America,  for  it  is  found  in 
the  tombs  of  the  ancient  Peruvians,  though  Bonafous  in  his 
Histoire  du  Naturelle  intimates  that  it  may  also  have  grown  in 
Asia;  but  the  Chinese  work  on  natural  history,  Li-chi-tchin, 
in  which  a  drawing  of  the  maize  plant  appears,  was  not  pub- 
lished until  1562,  seventy  years  after  it  was  first  found  in 
America.  The  uses  of  the  maize,  or  Indian  corn  as  we  call 
it  in  the  United  States,  have  of  late  years  greatly  extended 
in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America.  In  the  northern  midcon- 
tinent  states,  where  the  product  is  seen  at  its  best,  the  crops 
have  been  large  and  the  prices  high.  The  alta  California 
country,  that  is  to  say  the  states  south  of  Oregon  and  west 
of  the  Kocky  mountains,  is  not  the  best  for  corn,  being  too 
dry;  but  in  the  belt  of  states  which  terminate  with  Oregon 
and  Washington  on  the  Pacific,  the  plant  thrives  well.  Sev- 
eral years  ago  the  United  States  department  of  agriculture 
sent  agents  to  Europe  to  disseminate  more  general  information 
as  to  the  value  of  corn  as  a  food  product,  since  which  time 
the  German  government  has  placed  it  among  the  foods  for 
the  army. 

The  economic  epochs  of  California  have  been  four,  which 
may  be  called  the  age  of  grass,  the  age  of  gold,  the  age  of  grain, 
and  the  age  of  fruit.  The  golden  age  was  not  the  age  of  gold, 
nor  yet  the  pastoral  age,  or  age  of  grass,  but  rather  the  age  of 
fruit,  or  at  least  it  would  have  been  so  had  not  the  serpent 
crept  into  this  fair  garden  and  devoured  its  substance.  Per- 
haps it  is  too  late  for  the  United  States  government  to  own 
and  operate  its  railways;  perhaps  it  is  not  best.  Some  are  of 
opinion  that  the  state  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  busi- 
ness of  that  kind,  as  it  might  tend  to  peculation,  corruption, 
indifference  to  results,  and  inefficiency.  In  face  of  what  gov- 
ernments have  done  and  are  doing  in  this  and  other  directions, 
such  fears  fall  to  the  ground.  The  many  states  in  Europe, 
South  Africa,  Australia,  and  America  that  own  and  operate 
their  own  railway  and  telegraph  lines,  are  satisfied  as  to  re- 
sults. Our  postal  system,  conducted  by  the  government,  is 
essentially  good,  it  certainly  would  not  be  improved,  or  give 
the  .public  better  or  more  economical  service,  under  the  con- 
trol of  individuals  or  companies.  So  "with  regard  to  canals 
and  other  public  works.  The  people  prefer  to  trust  their  in- 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  217 

terests  to  the  government  rather  than  to  monopolists.  What 
California  complains  of,  is  for  the  government  to  give  its 
means  and  lend  its  credit  to  furnish  the  wealth  and  power  to 
monopolists  to  crush  the  people  and  kill  the  country.  This 
is  what  the  railways  have  been  doing  for  California  these 
many  years  past.  If  the  government  had  a  few  trunk  lines, 
or  even  one,  say  the  one  proposed  by  United  States  Commis- 
sioner Longstreet  from  Kansas  City  to  San  Diego,  the  evil 
would  be  obviated,  and  the  benefit  to  the  country  incalculable. 

Waves  of  industry  roll  over  the  United  States  at  intervals, 
leaving  in  their  wake  liberal  deposits  of  wealth.  To  get  lands 
was  the  great  purpose  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies, and  to  get  rid  of  them  was  the  serious  work  of  the 
nineteenth,  when  the  people  of  all  nations  were  urged  to 
come  and  take  as  much  as  they  desired  for  nothing,  or  at  a 
small  price.  Then  clearing  and  farming  were  in  order,  after 
which  roads  canals  and  railroads  were  constructed,  and  finally 
various  developments  one  after  another  as  iron,  coal,  gold,  sil- 
ver, oil,  cotton,  cattle,  and  the  like.  While  the  coast  states 
have  always  grown  cattle,  the  great  cattle  industry  has  been 
developed  in  the  Rocky  mountain  states,  from  Texas  to  Mon- 
tana, where  sun-cured  grasses  preserved  by  the  snow  of  winter 
afforded  free  food  for  vast  herds  of  stock,  which  resulted  in  a 
new  crop  of  American  millionaires. 

United  States  exports  of  late  have  been  about  $100,000,000 
a  month,  and  if  the  same  skill  and  energy  were  employed  to 
exploit  our  goods  abroad  as  at  home,  our  exports  would  soon 
be  doubled,  and  doubled  again.  The  attention  of  the  world 
is  just  now  given  up  to  trade;  people  may  not  be  any  the 
better  or  happier  for  it,  but  all  the  same  that  is  what  they  want. 
Governments  are  turning  their  attention  to  manufactures  and 
commerce,  evidently  beginning  to  regard  these  industries  of 
as  much  importance  as  war  and  politics.  Some  of  them  are 
establishing  among  the  offices  of  administration  departments 
of  commerce. 

While  united  in  sentiment  against  all  the  world,  the  race 
of  progress  between  the  United  States  and  the  British  empire 
will  continue,  running  in  the  main  side  by  side,  the  latter  if 
any  thing  falling  behind;  none  of  the  other  powers,  not  even 
Russia,  competing.  In  the  production  of  gold  and  iron  the 
United  States  and  the  British  empire  are  about  equal,  the  for- 


218  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

mer  perhaps  gaining  in  shipping,  in  the  output  of  coal,  in 
the  production  of  wheat,— in  wool  Great  Britain  and  her  col- 
onies are  in  advance;  while  the  United  States  lead  in  manu- 
factures, in  railway  mileage,  in  the  production  of  silver,  maize, 
cattle,  horses,  and  swine.  England's  tropical  commerce  is  38 
per  cent  of  her  whole  trade  outside  of  English-speaking  peo- 
ples. The  tropical  commerce  of  the  United  States  is  44  per 
cent  of  our  entire  foreign  trade  exclusive  of  the  trade  of  Great 
Britain.  Yet  not  a  tenth  part  of  the  world's  tropical  resources 
have  been  reached,  not  a  quarter  of  them  have  been  even 
touched.  The  mechanical  facilities  of  the  United  States  are 
now  such  that  goods  sufficient  for  a  year's  consumption  are 
manufactured  in  eight  months;  in  a  short  time  six  months  will 
suffice;  therefore,  we  want  an  outlet  for  half  of  our  manu- 
factures, and  if  we  cannot  sell  them  abroad  our  factories  must 
stand  idle.  This  shows  the  vast  importance  to  us  of  our  ex- 
port trade  and  foreign  markets.  Though  not  in  the  cotton  belt 
of  nature,  the  United  States  thus  far  has  produced  four-fifths 
of  the  world's  consumption.  England  has  been  able  largely 
to  control  the  price,  owing  to  her  manufactories  and  her  hold 
of  tropical  commerce.  As  one  of  the  results  of  our  war  with 
Spain  all  this  will  be  changed,  as  having  now  a  larger  area  of 
cotton  and  sugar  lands,  United  States  manufactures  in  these 
lines  will  increase.  The  cotton  crop  of  the  United  States  in 
1897-8  was  11,200,000  bales,  of  which  2,211,744  bales  were 
consumed  in  northern  mills,  1,227,939  in  southern  mills,  and 
7,758,317  bales  exported.  During  the  previous  three  years, 
consumption  in  the  south  increased  44  per  cent,  decreasing 
9.3  per  cent  in  the  north. 

Among  the  leading  agricultural  products  of  California  are 
wheat,  barley,  and  other  grains;  all  fruits  of  the  temperate 
zone  fresh  and  dried,  and  all  semi-tropical  fruits,  notably 
olives,  oranges,  and  lemons;  also  hops,  raisin  and  wine  grapes, 
nuts,  and  sugar  beets.  In  Europe  forestry  is  a  profession,  and 
New  York  has  a  college  of  forestry  in  connection  with  its 
agricultural  college.  The  big  trees  in  the  Sierra  foothills  of 
California  are  of  the  redwood  species,  found  also  on  the  coast 
in  Santa  Cruz  and  Mendocino  counties.  There  are  pine  spruce 
and  fir  in  the  mountains,  but  neither  the  lumber  nor  the  coal 
interests  of  California  are  to  be  compared  with  those  of  Ore- 
gon, Washington,  and  British  Columbia.  California  redwood 


HESOUKCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  2l\) 

finds  ready  sale  in  France,  if  not  less  than  eight  inches  in 
thickness  and  fourteen  feet  long,  as  lumber  of  these  dimen- 
sions enters  duty  free.  Likewise  California  fruits  and  wines 
find  ready  sale  in  Europe.  "  Western  America  ",  says  James 
Bryce,  "  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  subjects  of  study  the 
modern  world  has  seen.  There  has  been  nothing  in  the  past 
resembling  its  growth,  and  probably  there  will  be  nothing  in 
the  future.  A  vast  territory,  wonderfully  rich  in  natural  re- 
sources of  many  kinds;  a  temperate  and  healthy  climate,  fit 
for  European  labor,  a  soil  generally,  and  in  many  places  mar- 
vellously fertile;  in  some  regions  mountains  full  of  minerals, 
in  others  trackless  forests  where  every  tree  is  over  two  hun- 
dred feet  high;  and  the  whole  of  this  virtually  unoccupied 
territory  thrown  open  to  an  energetic  race,  with  all  the  appli- 
ances and  contrivances  of  modern  science  at  its  command, — 
these  are  phenomena  absolutely  without  precedent  in  history, 
and  which  cannot  recur  elsewhere,  because  our  planet  con- 
tains no  such  other  favored  tract  of  country  ".  What  has  the 
past  century  given  to  mankind,  in  the  way  of  inventions,  and 
the  application  of  natural  forces  to  these  inventions,  result- 
ing in  ocean  steam  navigation,  the  telegraph,  and  the  applica- 
tion of  steam  and  electricity  to  the  development  of  railways 
and  all  kinds  of  mechanical  industry?  And  is  it  to  be  for  a 
moment  supposed  that  the  human  mind  and  human  progress 
is  to  stop  here?  So  rapidly  are  our  powers  of  production  in- 
creasing that  we  can  only  consume  a  portion  of  what  we  grow, 
or  of  what  we  manufacture;  so  that  exporting  becomes  of 
vital  necessity  to  us,  an  increasing  foreign  trade  in  proportion 
to  increasing  production. 

Arizona  raises  horses,  mules,  cattle,  sheep,  goats,  and  swine. 
As  to  agricultural  products,  so  great  is  the  diversity  of  soil 
and  climate  that  all  plants  with  water  grow  well,  those  ac- 
customed to  cold  as  well  as  those  delighting  in  semi-tropical 
airs.  In  the  main,  however,  Arizona  is  a  grazing  rather  than 
an  agricultural  country.  Date-growing  has  of  late  been  at- 
tracting special  attention.  Considerable  wheat  is  raised  in 
the  vicinity  of  Phoenix,  Tempe,  and  Tucson,  where  large  flour- 
ing mills  are  established.  Irrigation  is  attracting  much  at- 
tention here  and  in  New  Mexico.  A  plan  is  on  foot  for  the 
irrigation  of  the  arid  lands  of  the  United  States,  amounting  to 
about  one-fifth  of  the  entire  area,  at  a  cost  of  $5,000,000,  the 


220  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

lands  affected  being  mostly  in  and  west  of  the  Rocky  moun- 
tains. Oregon  and  Washington  have  agricultural  lands  which 
for  durability  and  certainty  of  production,  as  well  as  fertility, 
have  not  their  superior  in  the  world.  The  region  is  never 
without  moisture,  and  failure  of  crops  is  unknown.  All  the 
products  of  the  temperate  zone  are  here  easily  raised,  semi- 
tropical  fruits  being  left  to  the  south. 

The  resources  of  British  Columbia  are  its  mines  fishes  and 
timber;  and  though  the  natural  wealth  of  the  country  is  not 
as  varied  as  in  some  sections,  in  what  it  produces  it  is  unsur- 
passed. It  is  not  an  agricultural  country,  as  it  grows  little 
except  grasses  and  oats.  Until  recently  Alaska,  and  part  of 
British  Columbia,  have  been  regarded  as  but  little  better  than 
fields  of  ice  and  snow,  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  civilized 
man.  But  profitable  fields  of  enterprise  are  now  found  there, 
as  mining,  stock-raising,  furs,  and  fisheries,  and  some  farm- 
ing. West  of  the  Cascade-Nevada  range,  as  well  as  in  British 
Columbia  and  Alaska  as  in  Washington  and  Oregon,  there  are 
not  only  the  fertile  lands  of  the  lower  slopes  and  the  plains, 
but  fine  forests  in  the  mountains,  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
mountains  themselves  a  thousand  fertile  valleys  of  the  very 
best  for  farming. 

Time  was  when  half  the  road  from  British  Columbia  to 
Nova  Scotia  ran  through  the  woods;  but  fires  and  settlement 
have  quite  changed  the  aspect  in  places.  While  eastern 
Canada  has  about  1,000,000  square  miles  of  woodland,  bear- 
ing mostly  pine  spruce  and  hemlock, — as  walnut  tulip  and 
plane  are  becoming  extinct, — British  Columbia  may  justly 
lay  claim  to  the  largest  compact  body  of  timber  in  the  world, 
and  of  which  only  the  edges  have  been  touched  by  lumber- 
men. All  along  the  coast,  from  Washington  to  Alaska,  the 
land  is  densely  timbered,  mostly  with  spruce,  cedar,  and 
Douglas  pine. 

With  such  opportunities  as  the  Pacific  coast  presents  for 
building  ships,  and  such  inducements  as  the  Pacific  ocean 
offers  for  sailing  them,  the  people  inhabiting  these  shores  have 
only  themselves  to  blame  if  they  do  not  now  quickly  become 
maritime  nations.  Great  Britain  still  goes  steadily  forward 
leading  all  countries  in  ship-building.  The  Belfast  yard, 
where  was  launched  the  Oceanic,  the  largest  ship  in  the  world, 
with  the  keel  laid  for  another  still  larger,  has  contracts  gen- 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  221 

orally  for  five  or  six  years  in  advance.  Of  the  world's  total 
output  of  1,893,000  tons  mercantile  ships  for  1898,  there  were 
launched  in  the  United  States  761  vessels  aggregating  1,367,- 
570  tons.  Of  British  ship-building  in  this  connection  the 
London  Times  says:  "  One  of  the  special  causes  that  have 
contributed  to  bring  about  so  large  demand  for  shipping  dur- 
ing recent  years  has  been  the  greater  economy  of  tonnage,  due 
to  the  substitution  of  steel  for  iron.  The  use  of  steel  has 
given  to  the  steel  shipowner  a  vessel  of  greater  carrying 
capacity  for  the  same  nominal  tonnage.  At  the  present  time, 
more  than  1,350,000  tons  of  steel  shipping  are  under  con- 
struction, against  less  than  9,000  tons  in  iron;  but  there  are 
still  many  iron  ships  in  our  merchant  navy,  and  the  amount  of 
new  shipbuilding  is  likely  to  be  heavy  until  they  have  been 
wholly  displaced,  and  until  the  most  modern  engines  and 
boilers  have  superseded  the  more  wasteful  systems  of  an  ear- 
lier date.  The  extraordinary  boom  in  our  shipbuilding  in- 
dustry has  caused  a  condition  of  affairs  in  relation  to  all  our 
great  mechanical  industries  that  is  almost  without  parallel. 
That  shipbuilders  themselves  are  full  of  work  may  be  taken 
for  granted,  since  they  have  nearly,  if  not  quite,  500,000  tons 
more  actual  business  on  their  books  than  they  have  ever  had 
before.  But  this  large  volume  of  orders  does  not  mean  ac- 
tivity in  our  shipyards  alone.  It  involves  a  corresponding 
amount  of  pressure  on  marine  and  mechanical  engineers, 
electrical  contractors  and  engineers,  iron  and  steel  manu- 
facturers, and  the  makers  of  the  hundred  and  one  different  ar- 
ticles of  greater  or  less  importance  that  go  to  make  up  the 
equipment  of  the  average  ship.  The  value  of  the  work  which 
our  mercantile  shipbuilding  industry  alone  has  furnished  this 
year  to  the  engineering  industries  generally,  including 
electrical  engineers,  will  certainly  not  be  less  than  five  and  a 
half  millions  sterling,  while  the  current  value  of  the  orders 
placed  with  our  iron  and  steel  manufacturers  from  the  same 
source  is  likely  to  be  at  least  five  millions.  The  total  value  of 
the  mercantile  shipbuilding  completed  during  the  year  1898 
is  likely  to  be  quite  twenty  millions  sterling,  and  the  value  of 
the  shipbuilding  for  purposes  of  war  on  hand  at  the  present 
moment  for  British  and  other  navies,  including  guns  and 
other  equipment,  will  probably  exceed  twenty  millions  more. 
All  this  means  a  pressure  on  our  great  mechanical  industries 


222  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

from  home  demands  that  has  led  to  the  enforced  rejection  of 
much  foreign  work,  and  to  that  extent  has  been  unfortunate 
as  regards  our  export  trade." 

While  there  is  an  abundance  of  fish  everywhere  in  the  sea, 
as  we  proceed  northward  we  find  fisheries  more  and  more  an 
industry.  When  the  gold-seekers  first  came,  the  Sacramento 
river  was  full  of  salmon,  and  not  long  before  that,  there  were 
seals  and  sea-otter  in  San  Francisco  bay.  Then  the  Columbia, 
and  then  the  Fraser,  and  after  these  the  Yukon,  each  in  turn 
became  the  centre  of  salmon  canning.  Alaska  fisheries 
amount  to  about  $3,000,000  annually.  The  United  States 
government  receives  $317,500  a  year  from  the  seal  fisheries, 
equal  to  four  per  cent  on  the  cost  of  the  country. 

It  is  remarkable  to  what  extent  lands  at  first  considered 
worthless  have  been  since  found  most  valuable.  Few  con- 
sidered California,  where  no  rain  falls  for  six  months  in  the 
year,  of  any  value  whatever  except  for  mining.  The  snow- 
covered  mountains  of  Wyoming  and  Montana,  and  the  bunch- 
grass  region  of  eastern  Washington,  were  regarded  as  the  least 
favorable  spots  of  earth  whereon  to  fatten  cattle, — considering 
which  let  us  not  be  surprised  when  farms  on  the  Yukon  are 
spoken  of.  By  an  agent  of  the  department  of  agriculture,  ex- 
periments have  been  made  showing  that  portions  of  Alaska 
have  a  soil  and  climate  open  to  agricultural  possibilities. 
Oats,  barley,  flax,  vegetables,  and  grasses  were  planted  and 
made  to  grow  in  the  vicinity  of  Sitka,  and  on  Kodiac  island, 
and  about  Cook  inlet.  Likewise  on  the  Yukon,  experiments 
have  been  made  as  to  the  growing  of  vegetables,  flax,  and 
clover,  which  proved  successful.  It  is  said  also  that  cattle  can 
be  easily  fattened  here  in  summer. 

In  vegetation  the  entire  shore,  following  the  Japan  cur- 
rent round  to  Asia,  is  in  summer  mostly  park  and  garden, 
forest  field  and  flowers.  In  cold  Kamchatka  the  luxuriant 
grass  grows  five  feet  high,  but  the  flora  of  the  Kuriles  is  poor, 
though  in  places  the  islands  are  well-wooded.  Wolves,  foxes, 
and  sea-otter  are  hunted  in  the  Kurile  islands  for  their  fur. 

Siberia,  extending  from  the  Ural  mountains  to  the  Pacific 
ocean,  and  from  the  Arctic  ocean  to  the  ever  varying  bound- 
ary line  of  China,  is  a  country  of  vast  natural  wealth,  both  in 
minerals  and  in  agricultural  possibilities.  However  icy  the 
tundra  marshes  may  be  along  the  frozen  ocean,  in  the  south- 


RESOURCES   OF  THE  PACIFIC  223 

ern  part  the  climate  and  vegetation  is  half-tropical;  hence 
of  course  there  is  a  temperate  zone  between,  with  all  the  pos- 
sibilities of  good  soil  and  temperate  climate.  Along  the  Amur 
river  there  is  no  reason  why  provinces  or  states  may  not  be 
made  and  peopled  like  those  along  the  Mississippi.  Eastern 
Siberia,  Russia's  Pacific  empire,  aside  from  its  inhospitable 
Arctic  border,  has  boundless  wealth  and  boundless  possibili- 
ties. There  are  present  all  the  minerals  in  abundance,  and 
much  of  the  land  is  as  good  as  any  on  earth.  China  little 
knew,  and  cared  less,  how  valuable  is  that  part  of  Manchuria 
ceded  to  Russia  in  1860,  how  full  it  is  of  agricultural  and  min- 
eral wealth.  Through  these  provinces  and  between  well- 
wooded  banks  flows  the  Amur,  more  than  fifty  steamboats 
and  hundreds  of  small  craft  constantly  going  to  and  fro  upon 
its  surface  to  a  distance  of  1,000  miles  above  its  mouth.  The 
valley  of  the  Ussuri,  through  which  flows  the  river  of  that 
name,  and  where  there  is  now  scarcely  one  person  to  the 
square  mile,  will  easily  support  thirty  inhabitants  to  the 
square  mile.  Thus  far  the  products  of  Siberia,  aside  from 
minerals,  have  been  grain  and  cattle.  Nine-tenths  of  the  400,- 
000  tons  of  cereals  sent  from  Siberia  in  1897,  was  wheat 
product,  either  whole  or  ground.  In  1898  Siberia  exported 
21,244  tons  of  tea,  besides  cedar  nuts,  fish,  timber,  oil  seed, 
flax,  wax,  honey,  eggs,  meat,  tallow,  furs,  wool,  bristles,  but- 
ter, sheepskins,  and  cow  hides.  American  ploughs  are  in  use 
in  central  Siberia,  and  along  the  Amur. 

Korean  colonists  bring  the  rich  lands  of  Russian  Man- 
churia, near  Possiet  bay,  into  high  state  of  cultivation,  by  fer- 
tilization, deep  ploughing,  and  rotation  of  crops;  grain  and 
cattle-raising  are  among  the  chief  industries. 

Lying  under  the  tropics,  with  abundance  of  moisture  from 
the  Japan  current  which  flows  by  its  eastern  border,  and  a 
fertile  soil,  the  island  of  Formosa  is  prolific.  On  the  moun- 
tains are  fir,  pine,  chestnut,  cedar,  and  camphor,  the  last  the 
largest  tree  of  the  forest,  the  others  growing  not  high  but 
thick,  with  great  branches.  The  mulberry  oak  and  tallow- 
tree  are  common;  also  the  shaulam,  a  fine  lumber  tree;  the 
pung-tree,  resembling  soft  maple;  the  bead-tree,  banian,  wil- 
low, and  screw  pine;  and  among  shrubs  the  raspberry,  thorn, 
tree-fern,  rattan,  and  red  bamboo.  The  cayenne  pepper,  or 
chile,  of  the  Spanish  Americans  is  indigenous  here;  also  the 


224  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

mango,  soap-tree,  and  castor  bean;  the  betel  pepper,  a  creeper, 
and  the  betel-nut  likewise  grow  here,  the  last  a  tree  fifty  feet 
high,  with  leaves  only  at  the  top,  and  bearing  the  betel-nut 
which  the  Malays  chew  as  an  intoxicant.  For  fruit  trees  there 
are  the  longan,  about  the  size  of  a  cherry;  the  loquat,  per- 
simmon, arbutus,  angular  fruit,  pomelo,  banana,  orange, 
peach,  plum,  pear,  crabapple,  guava,  pomegranate,  lime,  cit- 
ron, pineapple,  papaw,  jujube,  breadfruit,  hongkaw,  and  fig. 

Among  leguminous  plants  are  the  peanuts,  bean,  pea,  vetch, 
siusi,  and  indigo;  bulbous  plants, — sweet  potatoes,  yam, 
hoan-koah,  taro,  and  tumeric;  vegetables, — pumpkin,  squash, 
cucumber,  melon,  gourd  tomato,  cabbage,  onion,  and  garlic. 
Abundant  also  are  rice,  sugar-cane  and  millet,  with  some 
wheat,  barley,  and  maize;  tobacco  and  tea  are  also  grown 
here,  and  there  are  few  plants  that  do  not  flourish  either  on 
the  lowlands  or  in  the  mountains.  The  fibrous  plants  are 
conspicuous,  as  jute,  cloth-grass,  rush,  palm,  paper-mulberry, 
and  getho.  The  cultivation  of  rushes  for  mats  is  an  industry 
in  Japan.  The  plant  used  in  the  manufacture  of  matting,  the 
igusa  as  it  is  called,  is  grown  like  rice,  swampy  ground  being 
best  for  it.  It  is  planted  in  rows  and  harvested  in  August. 
So  great  is  the  draft  upon  the  soil  in  China  and  Japan  from 
the  constant  growing  of  crops  that  the  question  of  fertilization 
becomes  a  serious  one.  In  1897  Japan  imported  249,524  tons 
of  oil  and  seed  cake,  dried  sardines,  and  bones,  valued  at 
$4,758,529.  A  large  quantity  of  like  fertilizers  was  produced 
in  the  country,  so  that  according  to  the  best  estimates  not 
less  than  $7,000,000  worth  of  substances  went  into  the  soil 
of  Japan  in  one  year  to  sustain  and  enrich  it. 

Among  animals  are  the  monkey,  flying  squirrel,  civet,  wild 
boar,  goat,  deer,  leopard,  ant-eater,  and  otter;  while  among 
domestic  animals  are  the  horse,  dog,  cow,  and  water  buffalo. 
Of  birds,  fishes,  reptiles,  and  insects,  there  are  the  usual  trop- 
ical swarms.  Almost  the  entire  industrial  interests  of  the 
island  are  in  the  direction  of  agriculture. 

In  view  of  the  prevailing  sentiment  throughout  the  world 
that  China  should  lay  aside  to  some  extent  her  ancient  ex- 
clusiveness  and  open  her  interior  to  foreign  trade,  thereby 
benefiting  her  people  and  saving  the  empire  it  may  be  from 
the  hands  of  spoilers,  the  emperor  in  March  1898  promulgated 
a  decree  admitting  to  all  inland  waters  foreign  as  well  as  na- 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  225 

tive  vessels,  and  establishing  ports  of  treaty,  custom  houses, 
and  other  trade  adjuncts.  The  treaty  ports  thus  opened  were 
Yochoa,  a  military  and  customs  station  in  the  province  of 
Hunan,  situated  at  the  mouth  of  Tungting  lake,  and  distant 
from  the  treaty  port  of  Hankau  about  130  miles;  Santuao,  in 
Fukien  province;  and  Chingwangtao  in  the  province  of 
Chihli. 

Heretofore  only  the  coasts  of  Asia  had  been  touched  by 
foreign  commerce,  but  now  the  whole  vast  interior  is  begin- 
ning to  be  outspread  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.    The  canals 
and  rivers,  the  highways  of  the  nation,  are  thronged  with 
steamboats  and  small  craft,  all  swarming  with  an  industrious 
people.    Upon  this  important  development  the  North  China 
News,   of  Shanghai,   thus   remarks:    "  China   has   hitherto 
aroused  a  feeling  of  antagonism  simply  on  account  of  her  ex- 
clusiveness.    The  enormous  possibilities  of  trade,  which  the 
nations  of  the  west  believe  to  exist  in  this  country,  have 
naturally  excited  competition.     Hitherto  it  has  been  found 
that  trade  was  only  to  be  gained  by  force  or  threats,  and  a 
tendency  has  lately  become  manifest  to  take  action  which,  if 
not  checked,  would  undoubtedly  lead  to  the  dismemberment 
of  the  empire.    Sphere  of  influence  is  a  convenient  phrase  for 
glossing  over  what  is  apt  to  become  actual  control,  and  by 
agreements  among  the  powers  that  any  sphere  of  influence 
should  be  open  to  the  trade  of  all  of  them  on  equal  terms,  it 
is  conceivable  that  we  might  see  rapid  developments  in  this 
direction  which  would  soon  leave  very  little  of  China  inde- 
pendent.   But  if  the  Chinese  adopt  a  liberal  policy,  and  throw 
their  country  open  freely  to  all,  it  is  evident  that  the  old 
grievances  will  no  longer  exist.     China  becomes  one  of  the 
comity  of  nations,  and  her  interests  become  those  of  her 
friends  and  customers.    Any  attempt  on  the  part  of  one  nation 
to  obtain  a  preponderating  influence,  which  might  be  used  to 
the  advantage  of  its  own  commerce  and  to  the  detriment  of 
that  of  the  others,  would  at  once  arouse  diplomatic  resistance. 
Is  it  possible  that  the  Chinese  are  at  length  awakening  to  this 
view?    We  are  at  the  beginning  of  a  great  change  which  will 
have  stupendous  issues.     Let  the  Chinese  once  realize  that 
they  are  safe  from  aggression  as  long  as  they  are  friendly,  and 
that  they  secure  the  protection  of  foreign  nations  by  utilizing 
foreign  capital  and  foreign  enterprise,  and  we  shall  see  this 


226  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

country  make  such  strides  as  may  in  time  make  it  one  of  the 
richest  and  most  powerful  in  the  world." 

Another  act  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese  government  tending 
to  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  the  empire  was  the  con- 
cession made  in  May,  and  the  first  ever  granted  by  the  imperial 
government  to  a  foreign  company,  to  the  Peking  Syndicate, 
limited,  of  London,  to  open  mines  and  construct  and  operate 
railways,  with  the  sole  right  to  develop  the  coal  and  iron  de- 
posits of  Central  and  southern  Shansi,  and  the  petroleum  of 
the  entire  province.  Of  this  the  consul  at  Tientsin  says: 
"  The  signing  of  this  contract  marks  the  most  important 
epoch  in  the  industrial  policy  of  China.  The  precedent  has 
been  established  of  allowing  foreigners,  for  commercial  pur- 
poses, to  own  real  estate  in  the  interior  of  China,  open  and 
operate  mines,  and  construct  and  maintain  railways.  The 
Peking  syndicate  is  composed  of  a  few  men  who  control  im- 
mense capital,  and  who  have  obtained  the  most  valuable  con- 
cessions China  could  make.  The  preliminary  work  has  been 
in  progress  for  over  two  years.  The  concessions  will  be 
worked  by  the  Anglo-Italian  syndicate  with  a  capital  of  £6,- 
000,000.  The  success  of  this  enterprise  is  due,  first,  to  the 
fact  that  the  syndicate  was  willing  to  spend  money  upon  the 
chance  of  getting  a  concession,  and  that,  after  sending  their 
general  agent  to  China,  they  simply  allowed  him  to  manage 
affairs  here  and  kept  him  supplied  with  money.  The  agent 
has  shown  wonderful  tact  in  dealing  with  Chinese  officials, 
judgment  in  selecting  his  assistants  and  in  utilizing  all  avail- 
able means  to  success,  and  untiring  perseverance.  The  prov- 
ince of  Shansi  lies  to  the  west  of  Chihli.  It  consists  of  an 
interior  plateau  of  3,000  feet  elevation,  more  or  less  cut  up 
by  rivers.  This  plateau  is  bounded  on  all  sides  by  mountains 
rising  to  8,000  and  14,000  feet  above  the  sea.  In  some  places, 
these  ranges  have  been  cut  through  rivers;  but  in  all  parts 
they  are  rugged,  and  transportation  must  be  effected  by  pack 
mules  or  camels.  In  the  eastern  portion  of  the  province,  and 
running  into  the  province  of  Honan,  are  deposits  of  anthracite 
coal.  The  western  half  has  bituminous  coal  covering  some 
12,000  square  miles,  and  all  along  the  western  boundary  are 
deposits  of  petroleum.  At  many  different  points  in  the  coal 
region  are  deposits  of  rich  iron  ore.  The  coal  strata  are  prac- 
tically horizontal,  and  at  an  elevation  of  about  2,500  feet. 


RESOURCES   OF  THE  PACIFIC  227 

They  show  wherever  erosion  has  cut  to  a  sufficient  depth. 
This  anthracite  coal  vein  is  unbroken  over  an  area  of  13,500 
square  miles,  and  its  thickness  varies  from  25  to  50  feet,  an 
average  of  40  feet.  All  of  this  deposit  is  within  the  limits  of 
the  concession.  There  are  thousands  of  native  coal  mines 
now  in  operation,  and  the  coal  has  been  used  for  probably 
three  thousand  years.  The  iron  ore  is  now  worked  by  the  na- 
tives. There  is  probably  no  coal  field  known  in  the  world 
that  can  compare  with  this  of  Shansi,  either  in  quality  or 
quantity  of  coal  or  the  possibility  of  cheap  production.  In 
addition  to  the  concession  in  Shansi,  there  was  signed  on  the 
21st  of  June  an  identical  agreement  ceding  to  the  Peking 
syndicate  all  of  that  portion  of  Honan  north  of  the  Yellow 
river — about  10,000  square  miles — and  another  agreement 
by  the  terms  of  which  all  of  the  mountainous  part  of  Honan 
south  of  the  Yellow  river  is  ceded  to  the  syndicate  as  soon  as 
work  is  begun  on  the  Shansi  concession.  The  total  area  of 
these  concessions  is  71,000  square  miles,  equal  to  England  and 
Scotland."  The  continental  nations  seem  to  act  upon  the 
theory  that  if  they  can  fence  off  the  waste  places  of  the  earth 
and  hold  them  exclusively  for  their  own  people  that  they  are 
thus  gaining  an  advantage,  which  would  seem  a  narrow  policy 
for  Germany  in  particular  to  adopt,  eager  as  she  is  to  overrun 
the  world  with  her  traffic. 

Orientalism  is  the  embodiment  of  pleasure.  The  China- 
man loves  luxury  though  he  may  deny  himself  the  comforts 
of  a  lifetime  to  attain  it.  Eastern  civilization  or  Asiatic  bar- 
barism, whichever  may  be  the  proper  term,  has  been  under- 
going a  long  period  of  poverty,  owing  to  exhausted  lands  and 
an  excess  of  population.  But  with  the  coming  prosperity  of 
the  Pacific  a  taste  for  the  luxuries  of  western  civilization  will 
spring  up  in  the  Far  East,  which  will  accrue  to  the  permanent 
advantage  of  commerce.- 

Probably  the  soil  of  China  is  as  severely  taxed  to  produce 
the  requirements  of  mankind  as  any  in  the  world.  Of  the 
older  and  nearer  east,  as  Palestine,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  less  is 
demanded  and  less  given,  though  Father  Nile  seems  still  to 
remember  the  children  of  men  with  his  periodic  beneficence. 
So  do  the  rivers  of  China,  which  however  are  less  free  with 
their  gifts  than  the  Nile,  and  this  requires  of  the  Chinaman 
harder  work  to  sustain  life  than  the  Egyptian  is  called  upon  to 


228  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

endure;  and  surely  it  speaks  well  for  the  resources  of  China, 
the  fact  that  the  soil  has  sustained  this  dense  population  these 
forty  centuries.  Some  of  it  has  become  worn  out  in  so  doing, 
but  it  is  not  so  far  past  reclamation  but  that  the  Europeans 
will  take  it.  provided  they  can  by  any  means  cheat  or  frighten 
the  Chinese  out  of  it.  Densely  crowded  as  may  seem  three  or 
four  hundred  millions  of  people  in  a  million  and  a  half  square 
miles,  the  land  is  still  rich  enough  to  sustain  a  much  larger 
population.  This  Avorld  is  a  puzzle  into  which  people  are 
continually  poured,  and  it  never  gets  full.  Malthus  could  not 
find  standing-room  for  all  the  humanity  his  economics  were 
going  to  hatch. 

The  farms  in  China  are  small  and  well  cultivated.  First 
among  products  are  rice,  tea,  and  sugar;  then  come  vegeta- 
bles, a  little  grain,  with  indigo,  camphor,  and  silk.  The  cot- 
ton industry  of  India  has  assumed  large  proportions,  while 
Indian  tea  is  rapidly  taking  the  place  of  the  Chinese  article 
in  the  chief  marts  of  the  world.  Three-fourths  of  the  tea 
shipped  from  China  to  the  United  States  is  sent  from  the  port 
of  Amoy,  where  it  is  first  graded  and  packed.  The  ship- 
ments hence  in  1897  amounted  to  14,742,341  pounds,  valued 
at  $2,855,847.30.  Until  recently  this  tea,  which  is  largely 
consumed  in  the  United  States,  has  been  regarded  as  the  finest 
grown,  but  inferior  mixtures  gave  it  a  bad  reputation.  Then 
a  tea  commission  was  created  in  the  United  States  to  supervise 
the  importation  of  tea,  and  the  evil  was  remedied.  As  in 
olives  and  wine,  soil  climate  and  culture  have  more  to  do  with 
quality  than  has  species.  It  is  less  than  thirty  years  since  the 
tea  culture  of  Formosa  island  began  to  assume  importance. 
A  school  was  then  established  and  a  plantation  started  for 
teaching  new  methods,  which  found  favor  and  produced 
beneficial  results. 

Assam  is  the  indigenous  home  of  the  tea-tree,  and  decoc- 
tions of  the  plant  have  been  used  as  a  beverage  since  the  third 
century  of  our  era.  Its  culture  was  carried  from  China  to 
Japan  in  the  thirteenth  century.  The  Chinese  are  not  great 
tea-drinkers.  Russia  gets  the  best,  being  willing  to  pay  for  it. 
"While  for  a  long  time  the  chief  article  of  export,  the  industry 
in  China  is  declining,  owing  to  its  increase  in  India.  Hankau 
is  a  great  tea  centre,  where  the  brick  tea  is  prepared  for  the 
Tibet  and  Mongolian  markets. 


RESOURCES   OF  THE   PACIFIC  229 

The  whole  Bangkah  plain  on  Formosa  island  is  flooded  for 
rice  culture  from  an  irrigating  canal  which  winds  around 
down  from  the  mountains.  For  this  artificial  watercourse  a 
tunnel  eight  by  six  feet  is  in  one  place  cut  through  solid  rock, 
and  in  another  place  the  water  is  carried  over  a  river  in  an 
aqueduct  fifty  feet  in  height.  On  reaching  the  plain  the  water 
from  the  canal  is  divided  and  carried  in  every  direction  by 
innumerable  irrigating  ditches.  The  ox  is  used  for  dry 
ploughing,  and  the  water  buffalo  in  rice  cultivation.  The  lat- 
ter animal,  though  uncouth  and  of  bad  disposition,  is  invalu- 
able to  the  rice  grower,  who  is  obliged  to  furnish  large  pools 
of  water  for  the  beast  to  wallow  in  by  way  of  a  bath.  Tobacco 
is  cultivated  throughout  the  province  of  Szechuan;  at  Chung- 
king the  Chinese  have  a  cigar  factory. 

The  native  opium  industry  is  increasing,  while  the  importa- 
tion from  India  is  on  the  decline.  England  laments  her  loss; 
when  the  traffic  has  fallen  so  low  as  to  be  no  longer  profitable, 
let  us  hope,  as  in  the  slave-trade,  that  she  will  set  the  world 
an  example  of  good  morals,  prohibit  the  poison,  and  turn  her 
opium  fleets  into  warships  to  fight  against  it.  Or,  plant  the 
poppy  in  Africa  and  send  forth  more  of  those  philanthropists 
who  preach  the  healthful  and  beneficial  effects  of  the  divine 
drug,  which  even  though  it  kills  so  many  superfluous  Asiatics 
makes  life  so  sweet  for  them  while  they  have  it.  Yunnan  and 
Szechuan  now  supply  largely  the  smokers  of  the  Yangtse.  An 
acre  of  poppies  is  worth  two  acres  of  wheat. 

Korea  is  mountainous  with  but  few  plains.  Much  of  the 
upland  soil  is  dry  and  thin,  but  the  small  valleys  of  the  low- 
lands require  irrigation  only  for  the  rice  crop.  Pine,  oak, 
maple,  birch,  ash,  lime,  plum,  and  peach  are  among  the  in- 
digenous trees.  The  forests  are  all  in  the  mountain!?,  the 
coast  hills  being  quite  denuded.  The  fauna  includes  antelope, 
and  deer:  bears,  tigers,  and  leopards;  beavers,  badgers,  foxes, 
cats,  and  marten.  The  Portuguese  brought  tobacco  to  Korea, 
whence  it  found  its  way  to  Manchuria  and  central  China.  The 
use  of  the  weed  is  now  common  throughout  the  empire,  the 
Manchurian  tobacco  having  the  highest  reputation. 

A  family  of  man,  wife,  and  three  children  can  live  for  a 
month  in  Formosa  on  one  bag  of  rice,  140  pounds,  and  which 
costs  usually  $3,  but  during  the  scarcity  of  1898  the  price 
was  $5  gold;  so  that  the  wages  of  thirty  cents  silver,  or  fif- 


230  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

teen  cents  a  day  gold,  leaves  little  margin  even  for  those  who 
find  work,  while  many  of  those  who  have  no  employment 
starve.  Wheat  in  China  is  a  luxury  for  the  rich,  not  a  food 
for  the  poor.  The  lower  classes  make  a  small  cake  of  rice 
flour;  those  who  can  afford  it  substitute  for  their  little  bread 
cakes,  wheat  flour.  Sometimes  the  rice  flour  cakes  are  coated 
with  wheat  flour,  the  people  thus  cheating  themselves  in  their 
petty  indulgences.  And  yet  the  local  mills  at  Shanghai  sell 
China  flour  at  $1.85  in  Mexican  currency,  or  87  cents  Ameri- 
can, for  50  pounds,  while  American  flour  is  sold  at  $2  Mexican, 
or  94.4  cents  American  money. 

Among  the  greatest  of  undeveloped  possibilities  in  the  Far 
East  are  in  the  Philippine  islands,  with  their  broad  areas  of 
fertile  lands,  their  mountains  of  metals  and  timber,  and  their 
valleys  of  native  products,  all  teeming  with  wealth.  It  is 
safe  to  say  that  this  archipelago  is  worth  as  much  intrinsically 
as  that  of  Japan;,  it  can  grow  as  good  crops,  supply  as  much 
metal,  and  accommodate  as  large  a  population,  namely  42,- 
000,000.  The  mountain  areas,  now  in  a  state  of  nature,  have 
a  good  soil,  and  are  the  most  delightful  for  habitation.  Cof- 
fee and  cotton  were  once  largely  grown,  the  former  for  ex- 
port and  the  latter  for  home  consumption;  but  insects  almost 
exterminated  the  coffee  plants,  while  home-made  cloth  was 
driven  out  of  the  market  by  the  English  imported  article. 
Mindoro  raises  rice  and  com,  the  former  crop  reaching  765,- 
000  tons  annually;  yet  it  is  not  enough  to  feed  the  many 
Chinese,  who  have  to  obtain  more  from  Saigon,  Hongkong, 
and  Singapore.  The  Visayas  grow  sugar-cane;  all  the  islands 
will  grow  tobacco.  Of  the  manufactured  tobacco  70  per  cent 
goes  to  China  and  Singapore,  and  ten  per  cent  to  England. 
Southern  Luzon  produces  largely  of  cocoanuts,  which  besides 
furnishing  food  for  some  millions  of  people,  leave  for  export 
$2,500,000  worth  of  the  product.  The  islands  also  produce  a 
superior  indigo. 

The  four  principal  native  industries  of  the  islands  are  hemp, 
sugar,  copra,  and  tobacco.  The  export  product  of  sugar  for 
ten  years  ending  in  1897  was  1,582,904  tons,  more  than  half 
of  which  went  to  the  United  States.  Coffee,  though  growing 
wild  in  places,  has  not  yet  been  extensively  cultivated  on  the 
islands,  though  there  would  be  little  risk  in  doing  so.  The 
exports  of  hemp  during  the  same  period  were  6,528,965  bales, 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  231 

or  914,055  tons,  the  value  of  that  portion  of  the  two  products 
which  went  to  the  United  States  being  about  $9,000,000  per 
annum.  Not  only  the  principal  sugar  plantations,  but  the 
great  tobacco  fields  are  on  the  island  of  Luzon,  the  latter  in 
the  valley  of  Cayagan,  200  by  100  miles  in  area,  and  where 
is  grown  a  leaf  equal  to  the  best  Cuban,  and  which  gives  em- 
ployment in  its  manufacture  to  10,000  persons  in  one  Manila 
factory  alone.  Hemp  is  grown  chiefly  on  the  other  islands. 
Rice  is  a  staple  crop,  but  is  consumed  mostly  on  the  islands. 
Pigs  are  prolific;  also  poultry.  Cattle  goats  and  sheep  were 
introduced  from  Spain,  and  are  not  numerous.  There  are 
present  small  native  ponies,  but  not  many  large  horses.  The 
carabas,  or  water  buffalo,  is  the  all-round  beast  of  burden  and 
plough  animal. 

In  the  forests  of  Negros  and  Samos  there  are  thousands  of 
square  miles  over  which  the  foot  of  the  white  man  has  never 
trod,  and  where  is  an  illimitable  wealth  of  precious  woods,  as 
cedar,  ebony,  sapan,  ironwood,  and  logwood.  In  the  valleys 
and  on  the  plains  are  the  fruiting  trees,  the  orange,  mango, 
tamarind,  guava,  and  cocoanut. 

Much  is  being  said  of  the  opportunities  for  enterprise  of- 
fered to  Americans  in  these  islands,  opportunities  for  artisans 
and  laborers  and  a  grand  army  of  colonists.  No  folly  can  be 
greater  than  to  lay  plans  or  build  hopes  on  this  foundation. 
In  the  first  place  there  are  abundance  of  opportunities  for 
those  now  here,  as  well  as  for  all  who  will  appear  during  the 
coming  century,  for  the  exercise  of  the  fullest  energy  and  in- 
telligence in  developing  our  home  resources.  In  the  next 
place  the  experiment  has  repeatedly  been  tried  and  failed,  to 
acclimatize  the  native  of  the  midway  zone  to  the  heated 
regions  under  or  near  the  equator. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  bankers  and  business  men  were 
quick  to  see  in  which  direction  lay  their  interests,  and  were 
not  long  in  changing  their  allegiance  and  arranging  their 
business  to  meet  the  new  order  of  things.  They  urged  the 
Spanish  authorities  to  come  to  some  understanding  with  the 
Americans  in  regard  to  commercial  matters,  so  that  trade 
might  follow  its  natural  and  proper  course  without  interrup- 
tion. 

On  the  well-wooded  fertile  lands  of  the  Ladrones  grow  corn, 
cotton,  rice,  indigo,  cocoanuts,  bananas,  and  bread-fruit. 


232  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Guam  grows  in  great  abundance  yams  and  sweet  potatoes; 
also  corn,  bananas,  and  cocoanuts.  Fish  are  plentiful;  the 
island  is  prolific  of  swine;  and  there  is  some  game,  as  deer 
goats  turkeys  and  ducks. 

Since  the  decline  of  piracy  as  a  profession,  the  Sulus  have 
devoted  more  attention  to  agriculture.  The  land  is  held  by 
the  nobles,  under  a  kind  of  Mohammedan  single  tax  principle, 
the  government  taking  all.  The  people  are  ground  down  by 
oppression,  many  of  them  being  held  as  slaves.  The  noble- 
man is  always  armed  with  a  kris,  or  peculiarly  shaped  sword, 
and  a  blowpipe,  the  latter  the  national  weapon,  a  hollow  tube 
of  palm,  through  which  darts  are  blown.  The  blowpipe  is 
used  mostly  for  birds  and  other  game;  or  if  for  men  the  darts 
are  poisoned.  The  people  live  chiefly  on  rice  and  fish;  favorite 
dishes  are  chicken  and  eggs  cooked  in  cocoanut  oil,  and  square 
cakes  of  sago  mixed  with  fish  and  citron  juice.  Fruits  thrive 
abundantly,  chief  among  them  being  the  mango,  durian,  cus- 
tard-apple, and  the  plum  called  bolona.  Bread-fruit  is  an 
important  product,  and  cinnamon,  ginger,  and  the  chocolate 
bean  are  everywhere  prolific.  Cacao  trees  introduced  by  the 
Germans  are  proving  successful. 

Extensive  beds  of  valuable  pearl  shells  have  been  found  on 
the  west  coast  of  New  Caledonia,  and  a  company  formed  in 
Paris  with  a  capital  of  a  million  francs  to  exploit  the  beds, 
under  a  concession  covering  130  miles.  Commercial-agent 
Wolff  thus  writes  of  it  in  August,  1898:  "  New  Caledonia  will 
soon,  it  is  probable,  play  an  important  role  in  the  production 
of  pearl  shells  and  pearls.  The  varieties  of  shells  discovered 
are,  first,  the  avicula  margaritifera,  containing  a  large  num- 
ber of  pearls;  second,  the  meleagrina  margaritifera,  which 
furnishes  a  very  beautiful  white  pearl,  similar  to  those  found 
in  Tahiti  and  Gambier;  third,  a  variety  commonly  called 
epaule  de  mouton,  of  which  the  mother-of-pearl  is  magnifi- 
cent, with  many-colored  reflections;  fourth,  still  another 
variety  of  flat  oyster,  called  jambonneau.  The  pearl  is  abun- 
dant, generally  white  and  of  a  beautiful  water.  Frequently 
pink,  yellow,  gray,  and  black  pearls  are  found,  and  large 
numbers  are  often  found  in  the  same  shell.  One  is  cited  as 
containing  the  fabulous  number  of  256.  To  give  a  just  idea 
of  the  riches  of  these  seas,  a  little  boat  of  one  and  a  half  tons, 
furnished,  in  the  year  1897,  the  enormous  quantity  of  10 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  233 

kilograms,  23  pounds,  of  pearls.  Up  to  the  present  time, 
and  in  consequence  of  the  difficulty  of  procuring  divers,  the 
waters  have  not  been  sounded  to  a  greater  depth  than  2 
meters,  6  feet,  7  inches.  New  apparatus  and  larger  capital 
will  give  a  great  impetus  to  this  industry,  permitting  sound- 
ings of  8,  10,  15,  20,  and  25  meters,  at  which  depth  the  large 
shells  are  found." 

The  pepper  of  the  Straits  settlements,  which  grows  in 
hunches  of  20  or  30  on  a  spike,  is  picked  before  the  berry  is 
ripe;  and  dried  in  the  sun  or  on  iron  plates  and  marketed  in 
bags. 

Australia  possesses  vast  areas  of  grazing  lands  and  exports 
largely  of  wool.  Besides  mines  and  minerals,  there  are  pres- 
ent valuable  hard  woods,  which  are  now  an  article  of  com- 
merce, and  sent  to  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  for 
street-paving  and  furniture.  Late  droughts  in  New  South 
Wales  reduced  the  sheep  flocks  of  the  colony  from  66,000,000 
to  46,000,000  sheep,  besides  losses  of  300,000  horses  and  150,- 
000  cattle.  Wheat  and  flour  are  rising  into  prominence,  and 
instead  of  importing  from  the  United  States,  as  was  done  in 
1896,  to  the  value  of  $3,400,000,  it  is  expected  that  Sydney 
will  soon  have  wheat  and  flour  for  exportation.  At  New- 
castle, New  South  Wales,  are  some  twenty  collieries,  each  with 
an  acreage  of  coal-bearing  land,  owned  or  leased,  of  from 
1,225  to  9,000  acres.  New  Zealand  has  some  rich  agricultural 
country,  besides  her  mineral  and  grazing  lands.  The  gold 
fields  are  assuming  large  proportions  under  the  influence  of 
English  capital.  Wages  in  Australia  are  for  farm  hands  and 
servants  per  month  with  board  $12  to  $20;  artisans  per  day, 
$2  to  $3.  Sheep-raising  is  among  the  chief  industries  of  New 
Zealand,  and  wool  is  largely  exported  from  all  the  Australasian 
colonies. 

The  soil  of  the  Hawaiian  islands,  though  as  a  rule  rich, 
requires  fertilization  in  the  absence  of  rotation  of  crops.  The 
sugar  crop  of  1897  from  56  plantations  reached  251,126  tons, 
notwithstanding  the  dry  season.  The  cultivation  of  coffee  is 
increasing,  though  not  characterized  thus  far  by  many  large 
plantations.  Oranges  grow  wild  in  the  mountain  canons,  and 
are  not  extensively  cultivated  in  orchard.  It  is  somewhat 
strange  that  these  islands  are  so  poor  for  certain  fruits,  as 
peaches,  plums,  apricots,  and  apples,  the  production  of  which 


234  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

so  far  as  undertaken  has  not  proved  successful.  Grapes  and 
figs  are  always  in  market,  and  the  mango  is  greatly  relied  upon. 

Tropical  and  semi-tropical  products  are  as  necessary  to 
northern  civilization  as  northern  products.  We  need  the  cot- 
ton, sugar,  rice,  coffee,  tea,  cocoa,  silk,  drugs,  and  spices  of 
the  south  nearly  or  quite  as  much  as  the  grain,  meat,  and 
vegetables  of  the  north.  As  population  increases  and  the 
tastes  and  requirements  of  civilization  become  yet  more  arbi- 
trary and  pronounced,  tropical  products  will  become  more  and 
more  necessities,  and  fertile  tropical  lands,  which  are  quite 
limited  in  area,  will  increase  correspondingly  in  value. 

Henceforth  Cuba,  commercially  and  doubtless  politically 
as  well,  will  always  be  American.  The  $50,000,000  American 
capital  invested  there  before  the  war  will  be  increased  to  many 
hundred  millions.  A  little  larger  than  the  state  of  New  York, 
the  possibilities  are  great;  but  only  2,000,000  of  the  28,000,- 
000  acres  are  cultivated,  9,000,000  being  waste  and  17,000,000 
virgin  forest.  The  usual  annual  product  of  $85,000,000  can 
be  increased  ten  fold.  Sugar  and  tobacco  are  not  only  the 
chief  industries,  but  comprise  nearly  all  the  business  of  the 
island,  exports  usually  reaching  some  $80,000,000  a  year,  say 
$70,000,000  sugar  and  $10,000,000  tobacco;  though  fruit 
lumber  and  iron  ore  are  likewise  produced.  Three-fourths  of 
the  $2,000,000  fruit  exports  are  bananas.  In  the  forests  are 
some  sixty  varieties  of  valuable  woods,  hardwood  and  dye- 
woods,  as  ebony,  lignum  vitae,  and  mahogany.  There  are 
also  medicinal  and  textile  plants.  From  the  iron  mines  near 
Santiago,  owned  by  Americans,  $700,000  worth  of  ore  is  ex- 
ported. There  are  other  mines  of  iron  and  other  metals,  and 
new  discoveries  to  be  made  in  unexplored  parts.  Prior  to  1868 
Cuba  exported  $7,000,000  worth  of  coffee  annually;  but  the 
wars  of  the  Spaniards  and  insurgents  ruined  the  industry.  So 
with  cocoa.  Guano  might  be  mentioned,  and  also  fish,  of 
which  latter  commodity  some  one  soberly  claims  to  have 
counted  up  785  varieties. 

In  regard  to  coffee,  of  which  the  United  States  consumes 
700,000,000  pounds  per  annum,  the  plantations  of  Cuba  have 
been  in  the  main  destroyed,  while  the  industry  has  received 
a  decided  impetus  in  the  Hawaiian  islands.  The  product  of 
Porto  Rico  is  50,000,000  pounds  a  year;  Cuba  used  to  raise 
nearly  twice  as  much.  Of  the  2,500,000  tons  of  sugar  con- 


RESOURCES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  235 

sumed  every  year  in  the  United  States,  the  newly  acquired 
islands  have  been  furnishing  about  one-quarter  of  the  amount. 

With  the  opening  of  the  year  1899,  commerce  in  Cuba  and 
Porto  Eico  was  fairly  progressing.  The  blockades  were  raised, 
the  Spaniards  had  taken  their  departure,  and  all  was  as  if 
there  were  no  Spain,  no  Weylers,  and  no  rebels.  Plantations 
were  put  in  order,  sugar-makers  set  up  their  factories,  rail- 
roads were  built,  and  the  seeds  of  wealth  and  prosperity  were 
planted  on  every  side. 

The  United  States  imports  annually  25,000,000  pounds  of 
leaf  tobacco,  three-fourths  of  which  formerly  came  from  Cuba, 
besides  receiving  40  per  cent  of  the  200,000,000  cigars  and 
50,000,000  packages  of  cigarettes  annually  sent  forth  from 
that  island.  The  Philippines  export  350,000,000  pounds  of 
leaf  tobacco,  and  150,000,000  cigars,  comparatively  small  por- 
tions of  which  formerly  went  to  the  United  States.  Cat- 
tle-raising in  Porto  Rico  is  a  promising  industry;  also  dairy 
farming,  and  poultry  sheep  and  swine  growing.  There  are 
present  good  clays  for  burning,  and  from  which  pottery  and 
tiles  are  made. 

Organized  industry,  in  the  form  of  trusts  and  combinations, 
will  rule  agriculture  commerce  and  manufactures  here  as  else- 
where,— instance  the  North  American  Commercial  company, 
incorporated  with  a  capital  stock  of  $14,000,000  for  the  pur- 
chase and  development  of  20,000  acres  of  land  in  Porto  Rico 
and  Cuba.  This  is  a  specimen  of  twentieth  century  farming, 
and  as  with  many  other  like  companies  on  the  Atlantic  and 
on  the  Pacific,  agricultural,  mining,  and  commercial,  it  was 
organized  for  legitimate  purposes.  Coffee  plantations  come 
first  under  consideration  in  Porto  Rico;  they  are  held  at  from 
$75  to  $200  an  acre,  and  pay  a  profit  of  from  15  to  25  per 
cent.  Next  are  sugar  and  tobacco,  the  former  less  attractive 
as  an  industry,  and  the  latter  more  so,  for  the  moment,  on 
account  of  the  troubles  in  Cuba.  The  foreign  trade  of  Porto 
Rico  in  1896  was  $36,624,000,  and  the  exports  exceeded  the 
imports.  The  largest  share  of  Porto  Rico  trade  has  hitherto 
fallen  to  Spain,  being  about  ten  millions  a  year,  the  United 
States  ranking  next  at  seven  millions.  Tropical  products 
comprise  the  exports,  and  textile  fabrics,  fish,  flour,  rice,  and 
pork  are  the  chief  imports.  Clipperton  island  is  yielding  im- 
portant results  in  guano,  Japanese  labor  being  chiefly  em- 
ployed in  handling  the  deposits. 


CHAPTER    X 

CLIMATES    OF    THE    PACIFIC 

THE  currents  most  affecting  the  climates  upon  and  around 
the  Pacific  ocean  are  the  trade  winds  of  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere, and  the  Japan  current  of  the  north.  Like  the  gulf 
stream  of  the  Atlantic,  by  whose  influence  alone  the  British 
isles  are  made  habitable  for  man,  the  Japan  current  warms 
the  islands  and  shores  of  Alaska,  and  governs  temperature 
and  rainfall  all  the  way  down  the  American  coast  to  the  mid- 
dle of  Lower  California. 

To  Europeans  coming  to  the  New  World  nature  presents 
herself  on  a  grander  scale  than  any  to  which  they  have  been 
accustomed.  The  air  is  clearer,  heat  and  cold  intenser,  and 
colors  brighter.  The  mountains  are  higher,  the  plains  broader, 
the  lakes  deeper,  the  rivers  larger,  and  vegetation  more  re- 
dundant. The  lands  at  first  occupied  by  the  Spaniards  lay 
within  the  tropics,  having  high  interior  mountains,  and  pla- 
teaus raised  within  miasmatic  borders  into  cool  ethereal 
heights,  whereon  the  aboriginal  civilizations  first  awoke  to 
consciousness. 

Into  the  bay  of  Bengal  flows  the  warm  equatorial  current, 
thence  passing  through  the  strait  of  Malacca  into  the  Java- 
China  sea,  a  volcanic  basin,  in  which  the  water  is  warmed  upon 
the  surface  by  the  sun,  and  at  the  bottom  by  the  earth's  in- 
ternal heat;  thence  passing  along  the  Asiatic  shore  to  Bering 
sea  and  the  Aleutian  isles,  it  sweeps  round  to  the  American 
coast,  which  it  descends  toward  the  equator.  This  is  the  great 
river  of  the  Pacific,  the  kuro-siwo,  or  black  river,  as  the  Jap- 
anese call  it,  the  gulf  stream  of  the  Pacific,  and  the  counter- 
part of  the  gulf  stream  of  the  Atlantic.  These  are  the  great 
arteries  of  ocean,  and  the  analogy  between  them  is  striking  in 
every  particular.  The  kuro-siwo  brings  from  the  coast  of 
Asia  to  the  Aleuts,  whose  islands  are  treeless,  trunks  of  the 

236 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  237 

camphor-tree  from  China,  and  valuable  timber  trees  from 
Japan,  and  deposits  them  on  their  shores,  and  this  drift-wood 
furnishes  the  people  of  the  islands  all  that  they  require  for 
fuel  as  well  as  timber  for  house  and  boat  building.  The  water 
of  the  Japanese  current  is  of  deep  blue,  dark  as  compared  with 
the  water  of  the  ocean  through  which  it  passes,  and  so  called 
black  by  the  Japanese. 

It  is  owing  to  this  river  of  the  sea  which  comes  up  from  the 
south,  bathing  the  icy  coasts  with  genial  warmth,  tempering 
the  air  and  fringing  the  otherwise  treeless  coasts  with  forests, 
that  Puget  sound,  and  the  mouths  of  the  Eraser  and  Columbia 
rivers  are  not  blocked  with  ice  nine  months  in  the  year,  and 
that  the  Arctic  climate  is  not  spread  southward  over  sea  and 
shore  far  below  Mount  St  Elias.  And  the  effect  on  man  of 
this  climatic  influence  is  as  palpable  as  the  effect  on  vegeta- 
tion; as  witness  the  difference  between  the  short  thick-set, 
bunchy,  and  blubber-eating  Eskimo,  and  the  tall,  well-de- 
veloped, strong  and  symmetrical  native  of  the  Washington 
and  Oregon  coasts. 

So  heavily  charged  with  moisture  are  the  clouds  caught  up 
by  the  Japan  current,  upon  setting  out  on  the  long  journey 
from  the  southern  seas  of  Asia,  that  when  they  strike  the  icy 
peaks  of  the  farthest  northwest,  the  precipitation  is  copious, 
being  at  Sitka  seldom  less  than  83  inches  for  the  year,  while 
in  one  year,  that  of  1861,  the  rainfall  was  95.8  inches.  The 
mean  annual  temperature  of  the  Aleutian  islands  is  but 
little  lower  than  that  of  Scotland,  the  former  being  38°, 
and  the  latter  45°,  while  the  average  rainfall  at  Unalaska 
is  not  more  than  41  inches,  owing  to  the  absence  of 
high  snowy  mountains  acting  as  condensers.  The  mean 
winter  temperature  of  Sitka  is  33°  Fahrenheit,  which  is 
warmer  than  that  of  New  York,  and  about  the  same  as 
that  of  Washington,  1,095  miles  further  south, — about  the 
same  as  that  of  Mannheim,  on  the  Rhine,  and  warmer  than 
at  Munich,  Vienna,  or  Berlin.  At  Fort  Yukon  and  Nulato, 
where  the  temperature  is  often  100°  in  summer,  the  mean 
winter  temperature  is  at  the  former  place  17°  below  zero, 
and  at  the  latter  14°.  Reindeer  brought  from  Lapland  for  pur- 
poses of  transportation,  and  dogs  from  Siberia,  make  no  ob- 
jections to  the  climate,  but  the  Klondike  miners  like  travel 
by  the  railway  over  the  mountains  a?  well,  perhaps,  as  that 
by  sledges. 


238  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

The  Eskimos'  long  night  of  winter  begins  about  the  mid- 
dle of  October  and  lasts  not  quite  six  months.  All  is  then  a 
silent  and  dreary  solitude,  but  for  the  howling  of  a  wild  beast 
now  and  then,  and  the  occasional  lighting  up  of  the  aurora 
borealis.  Slowly  light  begins  to  come  in  March;  in  April  the 
dozing  Eskimo  rubs  his  eyes  and  crawls  forth;  in  May  the 
snow  begins  to  melt,  the  impatient  grass  and  flowers  arriving 
as  it  departs;  in  June  the  summer  has  fairly  come. 

In  Alaska  rise  the  three  mountain  chains  which  next  to 
the  ocean  winds  and  currents,  or  rather  in  conjunction  with 
them,  govern  climates  on  the  American  side  of  the  Pacific, — 
first  the  Coast  range,  which  hugs  the  shore  through  British 
Columbia  Washington  and  Oregon  to  southern  California; 
then  the  Cascade-Nevada  range,  which  extends  to  Lower  Cali- 
fornia; and  finally  the  Rocky-Andean  range,  which  consti- 
tutes the  back  bone  of  the  two  Americas,  and  extends  from 
Alaska  to  Patagonia.  Among  the  hills  and  valleys  of  the 
Coast  range,  which  is  nowhere  so  high  as  to  shut  out  entirely 
the  influence  of  the  ocean,  and  back  to  the  steeper  and  higher 
Cascade-Nevada  range,  is  the  garden  of  the  world,  and  per- 
haps, taking  it  all  in  all,  the  most  favored  spot  on  earth  as  a 
dwelling-place  for  man,  that  is  for  the  white  race  of  temperate 
climes.  Protected  on  the  eastern  side  from  the  winter  winds 
and  cold  of  mid-continent,  the  temperature  is  modified  and 
regulated  by  the  ocean  air  and  currents.  Warmed  by  these 
waters  in  winter,  and  cooled  by  them  during  summer,  there 
are  no  severe  extremes  as  to  times  and  seasons.  Even  in  the 
upper  latitudes,  as  Washington  and  British  Columbia,  it  can- 
not be  called  a  cold  climate,  the  occasional  light  snows  dur- 
ing the  warm  winter  scarcely  remaining  on  the  ground  more 
than  a  day  or  two,  while  the  cool  summers  are  made  healthful 
by  thousands  of  miles  of  ocean  air.  This  at  the  north,  while 
in  the  south,  at  San  Diego  for  example,  there  is  not  on  an 
average  more  than  ten  degrees  difference  in  temperature  be- 
tween summer  and  winter  and  night  and  day.  If  sometimes 
hot  days  come,  as  is  not  unfrequently  the  case — but  never 
very  cold  ones — with  the  mercury  up  to  100°  or  more,  the 
air  is  so  pure  and  dry  that  the  heat  is  not  unpleasantly  felt. 
It  is  not  debilitating,  never  in  the  least  enervating,  seldom 
malarious,  and  never  so  in  southern  California,  where  the 
summers  are  dry  and  no  decaying  vegetation  on  the  hills  or 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  239 

in  the  valleys.  In  New  York,  or  at  Manila,  a  temperature  of 
90°  would  be  more  severely  felt,  and  cause  more  suffering, 
than  would  a  temperature  of  120°  along  this  west  American 
seaboard  a  few  miles  back  from  the  water;  for  if  too  close  to 
the  sea,  the  evaporation  and  moisture  are  unpleasantly  felt 
in  a  very  high  temperature.  I  might  say  further,  that  a  tem- 
perature of  80°  at  San  Francisco  affects  people  more  unpleas- 
antly, and  throws  them  into  a  more  profuse  and  exhaustive 
perspiration,  than  a  temperature  of  110°  twenty-five  miles 
back  behind  the  hills;  while  500  miles  south  the  difference 
between  a  hot  day  in  close  proximity  to  the  water  and  ten 
miles  back  in  the  country,  where  this  same  ocean  air  comes 
a  little  dried  out  by  the  intervening  hills,  yet  still  fresh,  cool, 
and  inspiriting,  is  very  marked. 

The  tsar's  transsiberian  railway  is  destined  to  accomplish 
several  transformations  in  the  country  through  which  it  passes. 
First  it  will  open  this  land  to  settlement,  this  land,  and 
Manchuria,  and  all  that  can  be  choked  from  China  besides,  is 
being  made  ready  for  millions  of  unborn  Russians — so  kind 
of  the  tsar  to  think  of  it, — and  to  ask  the  powers  of  Europe 
not  to  fight  him  while  he  is  finishing  his  railway,  and  finish- 
ing China,  is  surely  no  unreasonable  request;  but  how  about 
the  millions  of  unborn  Chinese  who  want  their  lands  for 
themselves?  Then,  the  country  is  being  made  respectable  by 
respectable  settlers, — no  more  penal  colonies  allowed,  no  more 
exiles  of  Siberia.  Merchandise  and  agriculture  too  are  com- 
ing, and  exploitation  of  mines;  and  last  of  all  to  change  and 
be  made  new,  in  name  at  least,  climate.  Sunny  Siberia  is  the 
new  name,  christened  since  the  railway,  the  town  building, 
and  the  late  lootings.  Sunny  Siberia!  It  sounds  well,  if  one 
can  forget  for  a  moment  the  Arctic  belt  of  ocean,  and  the 
Arctic  belt  of  tundras,  or  ice-morass,  and  some  more  belts  of 
dog  and  reindeer  travel  before  coming  to  Pullman  and  church 
cars.  With  all  these  changes,  doubtless  there  is  sunshine  in 
Siberia,  sometimes.  But  however  eternal  the  ice  and  snow  of 
the  frozen  ocean,  it  is  warm  enough  considering  the  latitude 
at  the  Aleutian  isles,  where  the  rainfall  is  almost  continuous 
during  winter.  And  all  along  down  as  the  weather  becomes 
warmer  the  rainfall  is  less,  being  at  Alaska  84  inches,  British 
Columbia  76  inches,  Washington  71  inches,  Oregon  65  inches, 
and  so  on. 


240  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

On  all  sides  of  the  Pacific,  though  varying  between  wide 
ranges,  climate  does  not  on  the  whole  reach  the  extremes  of 
heat  and  cold  found  on  the  Atlantic.  The  mean  temperature 
in  January  at  Petropaulovski  is  17.6  degrees.  The  climate  of 
Vladivostok  is  in  summer  hot  and  moist,  with  mists  not  un- 
like those  of  Oregon  and  Washington  on  the  American  coast 
directly  opposite;  autumn  and  spring  come  abruptly  and  are 
welcome;  the  winters  are  not  severely  cold,  the  sky  is  bright 
and  cloudless,  the  fall  of  snow  light,  and  the  temperature 
seldom  below  zero. 

On  the  Yukon  in  November  the  temperature  falls  some- 
times to  40°  or  50°  below  zero;  then  again  throughout  the 
winter  there  are  times  when  there  is  no  wind  and  the  weather 
not  more  severe  than  that  of  our  midcontinent.  The  sun  hides 
behind  the  hills  of  Dawson  from  December  5th  till  January 
7th,  yet  it  is  not  exactly  dark.  The  temperature  of  sheltered 
creeks  is  about  10°  warmer  than  along  the  open  river  country. 

On  the  coast  of  Alaska,  and  in  British  Columbia  Washing- 
ton and  Oregon,  it  rains  all  the  year;  California  has  a  rainy 
season,  from  November  to  May,  and  a  dry  season  from  May  to 
November;  Panama  has  a  rainy  and  a  dry  season;  Bogota 
has  two,  Chili  one,  and  Peru  none.  While  in  Oregon  the  rain 
falls  every  month  in  the  year,  it  rains  five  times  as  much  in 
winter  as  in  summer. 

Over  the  Sierra  all  is  different.  Between  this  high  steep 
wall  and  the  broad  tumbling  elevations  called  the  Rocky 
mountains  are  the  great  deserts  and  bad  lands  of  North  Amer- 
ica, deserts  that  congress  would  do  well  to  water  and  reclaim 
before  conquering  China,  bad  lands  which  it  will  well  pay 
the  government  to  turn  into  good  lands  for  the  benefit  of  its 
supporters.  There  the  earth  is  powdered,  while  the  air  is  too 
arid  for  comfort.  From  whichsoever  direction  comes  the 
wind  it  comes  stripped  of  its  moisture;  if  from  the  west,  then 
by  the  high  snow-clad  sierra, — that  is  snow-clad  in  winter, 
the  only  time  it  rains  in  California;  if  from  the  east,  long 
enough  has  been  the  journey  over  the  plains  and  over  the 
mountains  from  the  Atlantic  to  wring  dry  the  clouds;  besides 
there  are  not  present  in  the  great  interior  basin  the  high  sharp 
cold  condensers  necessary  for  rain-making.  It  does  not  ex- 
actly rain  salt  water  in  this  region,  but  the  lakes  there  are 
mostly  salt,  and  the  streams  empty  into  the  ground,  all  but 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  241 

the  Colorado,  which  manages  to  exist  until  it  reaches  the  gulf 
of  California,  though  it  passes  through  some  broad  stretches 
of  sand  which  might  be  turned  into  another  Egypt  with  the 
Colorado  as  another  Nile.  Mirage  is  frequently  met  in  these 
deserts,  each  locality  having  its  own.  In  the  sandy  region 
below  the  level  of  the  sea,  the  scene  is  usually  a  beautiful  land- 
scape, in  which  are  lakes,  and  islands,  and  shores  of  luxuriant 
foliage.  Lower  California  presents  the  peculiarity  of  rain  fall- 
ing from  a  clear  sky.  In  British  Columbia  the  Cascade-Nevada 
range  forms  a  barrier  against  the  cold  of  the  Arctic,  and  the 
severe  winters  of  the  whole  northern  and  eastern  interior. 

Then  the  two  sides  of  the  Cascade-range  in  Oregon  and 
Washington,  like  the  two  sides  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of  Cali- 
fornia, present  quite  a  different  appearance,  owing  to  soil  clim- 
ate and  conditions.  Great  forests  rise  on  the  western  slope, 
and  fertile  valleys  below;  on  the  eastern  are  dry  sandy  stretches 
covered  with  bunch  grass  and  sage.  Yet  eastern  Washington 
is  fertile,  and  better  watered  than  the  deserts  of  the  south. 

The  Colorado  basin,  embracing  parts  of  southeastern  Cali- 
fornia Arizona  and  Sonora,  has  a  mean  temperature,  for  four 
or  five  months  of  the  year,  of  92°,  rising  at  midday  sometimes 
to  115°  or  120°.  The  clouds  of  the  Japan  current,  which  we 
left  in  the  north,  as  they  proceed  southward  are  wrung  drier 
and  drier  by  these  cold  hill-tops  against  which  they  beat  them- 
selves, until  when  they  reach  the  middle  of  Lower  California 
there  is  little  moisture  left  in  them.  The  distribution  assumes 
various  phases  in  different  places.  Thus  in  some  parts  of  Ore- 
gon and  Washington  there  are  heavy,  straight  downpours;  in 
other  parts,  more  especially  along  the  coast  and  away  from  the 
mountains,  the  rain  descends  in  the  form  of  mists,  or  a  gentle 
drizzle;  but  as  if  by  way  of  apology  for  the  modest  downfall,  it 
mists  and  drizzles  most  of  the  time.  Such  saturating  moisture 
is  good  for  crops  of  many  kinds,  which  are  said  never  to  fail 
here;  so  that  with  a  mild  climate  and  rich  soil,  the  agricultural 
possibilities  of  Oregon  are  beyond  compute.  At  the  northern 
end  of  the  California  coast  the  annual  rainfall  averages  54 
inches;  at  the  southern  end  ten  inches.  Back  from  the  south- 
ern coast  among  the  mountains  the  fall  is  sometimes  30  or  40 
inches,  and  it  may  not  be  more  than  that  in  the  northern  in- 
terior. The  rainfall  is  largely  increased  or  diminished  by  local 
causes,  overruling  the  general  wind  and  current  regulations, 
which,  however,  for  the  most  part  govern  all. 


2±2  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  on  the  coast  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  elsewhere,  the  summer  winds  blow  from  the  ocean 
to  the  land  during  the  day,  and  either  cease  altogether  or  blow 
from  the  land  during  the  night,  the  air  being  warmer  on  land 
during  the  day  and  warmer  on  the  water  at  night;  also  that 
a  southeast  wind  in  winter  brings  rain,  the  moisture-laden 
currents  of  ocean  being  drawn  thence,  while  a  north  wind, 
coming  from  barren  mountains  or  sandy  plains  is  dry  and 
withering.  In  South  America  the  wind's  changes  are  quite 
different.  "  At  Chili  "  says  a  French  savant,  "  the  daily  al- 
teration of  the  breeze  assumes  a  very  singular  character  in  the 
season  when  the  southern  zone  or  belt  of  calms  attains,  in  its 
extreme  oscillations,  its  southern  limit.  It  is  the  period  of  the 
greatest  heat  at  Valparaiso.  The  sky  is  pure,  the  air  trans- 
parent; the  radiation  in  space  operates  without  obstacles. 
The  atmosphere,  in  this  condition  of  perfect  equilibrium,  ap- 
pears admirably  disposed  to  obey  the  lightest  impulse  which 
may  be  given  it  by  the  smallest  change  in  the  temperature. 
As  early  as  ten  o'clock  the  earth  has  felt  the  influence  of  the 
sun;  the  heated  air  dilates  and  ascends.  The  breeze  forms 
upon  the  waves;  it  freshens,  it  rushes  towards  the  land.  At 
about  two  o'clock  it  blows  from  the  open  with  extreme  vio- 
lence. Ships  at  anchor  are  often  sorely  beset;  they  drive  upon 
their  anchors,  and  navigation  in  the  roadstead  is  impossible. 
But  at  six  o'clock  the  wind  begins  to  spend  its  force.  It  falls 
rapidly,  sinks,  and  falls  out,  and  the  repose  of  the  evening 
becomes  as  profound  at  that  of  the  morning." 

Arizona  has  two  rainy  seasons,  one  in  July  and  August  and 
the  other  in  February  and  March.  The  mean  annual  tem- 
perature of  Lower  California  is  60°,  and  the  annual  rainfall 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  peninsula  is  about  eight  inches, 
the  quantity  lessening  toward  the  south. 

The  larger  part  of  tropical  North  America  is  occupied  by 
Mexico,  whose  central  pleateau  rises  to  a  height  of  6,000  to 
8,000  feet  above  the  ocean.  Upon  this  high  table-land  stand 
mountains  with  their  tops  in  eternal  snow,  while  the  base  of 
the  plateau  is  wrapped  in  malarial  mists  or  broils  under  an 
equatorial  sun.  These,  then,  are  the  climates  of  the  country, 
of  every  conceivable  variety  from  the  hottest  to  the  coldest, 
from  the  wettest  to  the  driest,  and  from  the  most  salubrious 
to  the  most  deadly.  Rain  falls  heavily  along  the  hot  seaboard, 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  243 

except  in  Lower  California,  the  central  portion  of  which,  like 
the  relative  position  in  South  America,  is  almost  rainless. 
The  greater  part  of  the  table-land  has  a  moderate  rainfall  of 
from  60  to  70  inches,  though  the  average  in  the  valley  of 
Mexico  is  73  inches,  while  at  times,  in  Chihuahua,  Durango, 
and  Coahuila  the  rainfall  is  so  light  that  nearly  every  year  in 
some  places  crops  fail  and  cattle  die.  Then,  too,  in  these  parts, 
instead  of  being  properly  distributed  throughout  the  season 
so  as  to  benefit  the  soil,  the  rain  comes  spasmodically  and 
often  in  torrents,  doing  sometimes  more  harm  than  good. 
The  rainy  season  in  Mexico  is  the  summer,  the  reverse  of  that 
in  upper  California.  The  terraced  slope  between  the  high 
plateau  and  the  sea  is  delightful,  being  above  the  malarious 
humidity  of  the  seaboard,  and  below  the  electrical  aridity  of 
the  denuded  highlands.  Thus  we  see  that  although  Mexico 
is  nearly  all  within  the  tropics,  but  a  portion  of  her  area  has 
really  a  tropical  climate. 

Besides  the  rapidly  growing  and  rapidly  decaying  vegeta- 
tion of  the  tierra  caliente,  or  hot  land,  there  are  extensive 
areas  of  overflow  breathing  infection.  The  tierra  templade  is 
semi-tropical  in  temperature  and  vegetable  life,  which  latter 
is  exuberant  and  varied  on  the  terraces,  and  even  on  the  pla- 
teau where  it  falls  to  an  altitude  of  three  or  four  thousand 
feet.  Except  in  marsh  lands  having  no  drainage,  all  the 
tierra  fria,  or  high  and  consequently  cold  land,  has  a  pure  and 
healthful  air.  On  the  plateau  the  wind  is  sometimes  severe; 
on  the  Pacific  seaboard,  northeast  and  southwest  winds  pre- 
vail. 

At  the  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  where  the  great  continental 
chain  is  disrupted,  dropping  away  into  undulating  hills  of 
500  or  1,000  feet  high,  and  the  breadth  of  the  continent  is 
reduced  to  115  miles  from  sea  to  sea,  the  country  thence  sweep- 
ing round  to  the  eastward  broadens  out  for  hundreds  of  miles 
over  Chiapas,  Tabasco,  Campeche,  and  Yucatan,  then  rising 
abruptly  to  an  altitude  of  8,000  feet  and  over, — these  peculiar 
conditions  unite  to  produce  a  climate  found  nowhere  else  in 
America;  that  is,  the  surroundings  of  certain  spots  so  modify 
winds  moisture  and  temperature  as  to  present  peculiarities 
which  being  met  by  the  modified  results  of  other  peculiarities 
produce  phenomenal  effects.  Thus  from  the  insular  position 
of  Tehuantepec  the  temperature  in  winter  frequently  falls 


244  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

below  57°,  though  the  average  is  69°,  while  the  heat  of  sum- 
mer, which  with  a  south  wind  is  dry,  is  seldom  above  97°. 
Ordinarily  the  temperature  of  summer  is  from  70°  to  85°, 
with  winds  from  the  north  and  east.  The  rainy  season  is 
from  June  to  October,  though  light  showers  fall  throughout 
the  year.  The  two  sides  of  this  isthmus  have  likewise  their 
climatic  peculiarities.  For  example,  the  Pacific  side  is  warmer 
and  drier  than  the  gulf  side;  the  rainy  season  is  shorter,  and 
the  precipitation  is  less  than  half  that  on  the  gulf  side,  which 
sometimes  reaches  100  inches  in  the  year. 

The  Eocky  mountain  chain,  which  on  entering  Mexico  sep- 
arates into  the  two  sierras  on  either  side  of  the  great  plateau, 
unites  at  Tehuantepec,  and  continues  its  course  in  the  form 
of  broken  table-land  through  Guatemala,  throws  up  a  formid- 
able barrier  on  the  Pacific  side  of  Honduras,  which  sends  east- 
ward several  transverse  ranges,  passes  on  at  diminished  alti- 
tudes through  Nicaragua,  rising  once  more  on  reaching  Costa 
Eica,  bold  and  rugged,  with  the  volcano  of  Cartago  as  a  land- 
mark, sinks  again  on  entering  Veragua,  passes  as  low  hills 
through  the  Panama  isthmus,  again  to  rise  to  towering  heights 
as  the  great  cordillera  of  the  Andes,  and  so  on  by  the  Pacific 
shore  dominating  the  winds  and  rains  to  the  southern  ex- 
tremity of  the  continent.  All  along  its  central  and  southern 
course  the  northeast  trade  winds  blow  the  greater  part  of  the 
year,  and  striking  the  high  ranges  drop  their  moisture  on 
the  eastern  side,  filling  the  marshes  and  covering  the  eastern 
slopes  with  rank  vegetation,  leaving  the  Pacific  side,  as  far  as 
Peru  at  least,  rainless  and  treeless,  except  where  the  south- 
west winds  blow  in  upon  the  land  from  May  till  October. 
Probably,  taking  it  all  in  all,  the  hot,  marshy  atmosphere  of 
the  Isthmus  is  the  worst  in  the  two  Americas,  where  a  vertical 
sun  lifts  and  lets  fall  on  the  spot  a  deluge  of  water,  decom- 
posing the  rank  vegetation,  and  engendering  a  miasma  deadly 
to  the  unacclimated. 

Central  America  has  a  delightful  interior  climate,  cool  and 
invigorating  in  the  mountains,  but  hot  and  malarious  on  the 
two  seaboards.  Punta  Arenas,  in  the  gulf  of  Nicoya,  is  the 
Pacific  seaport  of  Costa  Eica,  whose  capital  of  San  Jose  is 
situated  midway  between  the  two  oceans.  Nicaragua  has  for 
its  chief  port  on  the  Pacific  Bealejo;  San  Salvador  has  La 
Libertad,  the  capital  being  32  miles  inland.  The  chief  Pa- 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  245 

cific  port  of  Guatemala  is  San  Jose;  and  that  of  Honduras, 
Amapala.  Guatemala  city  is  90  miles  from  the  coast;  the 
average  mean  temperature  is  65°.  Though  warm,  the  climate 
of  Nicaragua  is  not  unhealthy,  scarcely  uncomfortable;  swamps 
and  lagoons  are  rare  in  the  uplands. 

Parts  of  Colombia,  particularly  the  Panama  isthmus  and 
on  the  borders  of  both  oceans,  are  hot,  humid,  and  exceedingly 
unhealthy,  the  malarious  vapors  rising  from  the  decaying 
vegetation  being  constant  and  very  pernicious  to  all  but  the 
natives.  So  it  is  on  both  sides  of  Central  America,  and  in- 
deed on  all  the  wet  tropical  shores  of  America  and  Asia.  Yet 
the  high  interior  air  of  Colombia  is  delightful,  the  soil  pro- 
lific, and  in  the  cities  are  some  manufactures. 

High  in  the  cool  air  stand  the  equatorial  cities  of  Quito  and 
Bogota,  so  high  and  so  steep  their  approach  from  the  Pacific 
side,  it  is  found  better  to  make  the  ascent,  particularly  to  the 
latter,  from  the  more  distant  Atlantic.  Each  of  these  cities 
stands  upon  a  great  plain  where  wheat  barley  and  potatoes 
grow  well,  and  where  many  cattle  find  excellent  pasture. 
Horses  sheep  and  swine  likewise  enjoy  the  climate.  In  both 
cities  the  people  have  respect  for  earthquakes,  building  their 
adobe  houses  low  in  consequence  of  them,  and  with  iron  grat- 
ings over  the  street  windows  on  account  of  the  thieves,  and 
even  then  not  feeling  safe  when  the  shaking  comes  or  the 
thieves  appear.  There  are  business  blocks  in  the  centre  of 
the  cities  built  of  stone  and  bricks,  some  of  two  stories. 

Bolivar  was  the  Washington  of  all  this  region,  and  his 
effigy  in  marble  is  everywhere.  The  Ferdinand  he  had  to 
fight  was  even  less  of  a  man  than  the  George  whom  Washing- 
ton opposed;  but  all  the  same  Bolivar  became  the  father  of 
republics,  and  let  us  hope  that  some  of  them  will  become  in 
due  time,  if  they  are  not  already  so,  good  and  great  ones. 

Bogota  has  a  mint  and  several  banks  but  no  carriages. 
Equestrians  and  occupants  of  sedan-chairs  are  permitted  pas- 
sage along  the  narrow  streets.  The  national  capitol,  on  the 
south  side  of  the  plaza  de  la  Constitucion,  and  containing  the 
halls  of  the  senate  and  house  of  representatives,  besides  the 
offices  and  residence  of  the  president,  is  a  massive  two-story 
edifice,  with  yellow  stone  fagade,  which  cost  a  million  dollars. 
Here  likewise  is  a  school  of  fine  arts,  an  opera  house,  and  a 
national  library  and  national  museum. 


246  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

The  trade  winds  of  intertropical  regions,  atmospheric  cur- 
rents arising  from  the  action  of  temperature  and  the  earth's 
diurnal  motion,  were  great  aids  to  early  commerce  as  they 
became  properly  understood  and  utilized.  Their  movements 
are  continuous  on  both  sides  of  the  equator,  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  north,  from  northeast  to  southwest,  south  from 
southwest  to  northeast;  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  north, 
from  north-north-east  to  east-north-east;  south,  from  south- 
south-west  to  west-south-west;  at  the  equator  from  east  to 
west.  The  world's  trade  winds  are  broken  by  the  continent 
of  the  two  Americas,  interposing  its  entire  length  across 
the  world's  expanse  of  waters,  where  otherwise  the  two  great- 
est of  oceans  would  be  thrown  into  one,  as  indeed  the  fifteenth 
century  cosmographers  thought  them  to  be.  In  the  south  Pa- 
cific the  trade  wind  springs  up  some  distance  from  the  shore 
of  South  America,  and  blows  toward  Australia.  The  north- 
east current  is  regular  between  latitude  2°  north  and  25° 
south,  though  in  summer  it  veers  northerly.  These  are  the 
winds  which  carried  Magellan  so  successfully  across  the  vast 
unknown  wilderness  of  waters,  and  helped  the  old  rich- 
freighted  galleons  between  Acapulco  and  Manila. 

Humboldt  reported  an  ocean  current  which  flows  along  the 
coasts  of  Chili  nearly  to  the  equator,  modifying  and  making 
more  habitable  by  its  cool  moisture  the  rainless  regions  of 
Peru.  In  the  heated  waters  of  Polynesia  rises  a  current  which 
flows  south  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Australia  to  New  Zea- 
land, giving  delight  to  the  coral-reef  makers  that  here  con- 
struct their  atolls.  Central  and  South  America  receive  their 
moisture  from  the  meeting  of  the  northeast  trade  winds  of  the 
Atlantic  with  the  southeast  trade  winds  of  the  Pacific,  and  the 
rains  wrung  by  the  high  summits  of  the  Andes  from  the  clouds 
thus  formed  feed  the  great  rivers  flowing  eastward,  while  the 
winds  descend  the  western  slope  dry  and  cloudless,  leaving 
behind  a  rainless  region  watered  only  by  the  melted  snows  of 
the  mountains.  Within  the  limits  of  the  movable  equatorial 
calms,  which  surround  Panama  from  June  to  November,  it 
rains  almost  incessantly;  during  the  remainder  of  the  year, 
when  the  northwest  winds  prevail,  it  is  the  dry  season  at 
Panama,  though  even  then  it  sometimes  rains.  The  annual 
variations  of  the  trade  and  calm  wind  belts  are  about  1,000 
miles  in  latitude.  The  zone  of  equatorial  calms  is  in  July  and 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  247 

August  between  7°  and  12°  north  latitude;  in  March  and 
April  between  5°  south  and  2°  north  latitude.  The  varia- 
tions of  the  zones  are  governed  by  the  sun.  The  southwest 
winds  reach  the  coast  of  southern  California  late  in  autumn, 
bringing  rain.  In  California  the  land  is  cooler  than  the 
ocean  in  winter  and  warmer  in  summer;  hence  the  sea  winds 
are  condensed  into  rain  in  the  former  instance  and  not  in 
the  latter. 

The  empire  of  the  incas  comprised  every  climate,  and  was 
capable  of  growing  all  the  products  of  every, zone.  Along 
the  dizzy  precipices  of  the  cordillera  roads  were  constructed, 
the  chasms  spanned  by  bridges,  while  on  the  mountain  side 
were  terraces  of  hanging  gardens.  There  is  practically  no 
rain  on  the  Peruvian  seaboard,  owing  to  the  lofty  snow- 
capped Andean  chain,  where  are  peaks  21,000  feet  high  and 
more,  which  breaks  the  southeast  trade-wind  coming  over 
Brazil  from  the  Atlantic,  and  wrings  from  it  all  its  remaining 
moisture,  leaving  it  to  descend  the  western  slope  cold  and  dry, 
to  be  charged  with  fresh  moisture  only  on  reaching  the  Pa- 
cific. The  prevailing  wind  along  the  coast  is  from  the  south. 
There  is  a  fog  from  June  to  September  which  sometimes 
amounts  to  a  drizzling  rain;  from  November  to  April  the 
air  is  dry  and  the  sky  clear.  Mean  temperature  at  Lima  70°. 
The  rain  is  heaviest  in  the  mountains  when  it  is  hottest  and 
driest  on  the  coast.  Irrigation  is  effective.  The  city  stands 
512  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Winter  here  is  from  June 
to  November,  during  which  the  air  is  cold,  from  57°  to  61°; 
in  summer  from  December  to  May,  the  mean  temperature  is 
72°.  Callao  is  the  port  of  Lima,  the  temperature  of  the  latter 
city  ranging  from  60°  to  80°.  Rain  is  very  rare;  practically 
there  is  none. 

The  climate  of  Chili  is  equable  and  healthy,  the  interior 
warmer  than  the  coast.  North  of  latitude  27°  it  seldom 
rains.  The  mean  temperature  of  Santiago  is  70°.  South  of 
latitude  27°  it  rains  in  June  July  and  August,  which  are  the 
winter  months  of  the  southern  hemisphere.  Coming  north- 
ward from  Cape  Horn,  the  climate  of  Chili  opens  cold  wet  and 
boisterous,  and  turns  to  scorching  heat  as  the  Capricorn  tropic 
is  entered,  the  land  extending  from  ocean  level  on  one  side 
to  snow  line  on  the  other.  The  rainy  months  are  June  July 
and  August,  during  which  time  the  wind  is  northerly,  while 
9 


248  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

for  the  rest  of,  the  year  it  is  from  the  south.  Winter  opens 
with  June,  spring  with  September,  summer  with  December, 
and  autumn  with  March.  Chili  has  frequent  temblores,  with 
a  thorough  shaking  up  "once  in  ten  years,  and  a  grand  focusing 
of  earthquake  forces  once  in  about  fifty  years.  Seventy-two 
severe  earthquakes  have  occurred  in  Peru  since  1575,  Callao 
being  well-nigh  destroyed  in  1745,  and  Arequipa  in  1868. 
In  the  north,  the  northeast  winds  meet  those  from  the  south- 
west at  about  latitude  40°,  and  precipitation  follows. 

The  climate  of  Victoria,  Australia,  like  that  of  California 
is  exceptionally  fine.  In  fact,  all  round  the  Pacific  the  con- 
ditions are  favorable  to  health  wealth  and  happiness.  There 
are  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  of  course,  in  places,  and  some 
malaria,  but  there  is  enough  left  of  earthly  perfection  in  re- 
gard to  all  that  make  for  man's  welfare  as  to  justify  Dante  in 
placing  his  Terrestrial  Paradise  in  the  middle  of  this  ocean. 
Queensland  has  a  tropical  climate,  but  it  is  salubrious,  and 
white  men  live  there  in  considerable  numbers  as  miners, 
herders,  sugar-workers,  and  all  kinds  of  mechanical  laborers. 
Mean  temperature  of  Melbourne  57° 6;  of  Sydney  62° 6;  of 
New  Zealand,  55°. 

In  the  centre  of  the  Pacific,  the  climate  of  the  Hawaiian  isles 
is  peculiar  to  itself.  From  the  warm  moisture  of  the  seaboard 
to  a  wintry  mountain  height  the  distance  is  not  great.  For 
the  most  part  the  atmosphere  is  clear;  there  is  fog,  not  much 
mist,  and  no  sunstrokes.  A  cool  ocean  current  comes  in  from 
Japan  rendering  the  temperature  from  two  to  ten  degrees 
lower  than  in  other  lands  on  the  same  line  of  latitude. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  always  wet  on  the  windward  side  of  the 
islands,  where  the  precipitation  is  heaviest,  and  where  the 
ocean  rain-clouds  first  strike  the  mountain  tops. 

The  trade  winds  come  in  from  the  east  in  March  and  con- 
tinue for  nine  months,  not  always  in  temper  mild  and  be- 
nignant, but  upon  occasion  angry  and  boisterous.  The  tidal 
wave  is  not  a  welcome  visitor,  when  it  comes  rushing  and  roar- 
ing in  from  the  ocean,  toward  the  frightened  inhabitants  in 
form  of  a  water-wall  dashing  itself  upon  the  shore,  flooding 
farms,  floating  houses,  throwing  into  wildest  confusion  men 
women  and  children,  dogs,  canoes,  and  household  effects, 
killing  some  and  half  killing  the  rest  with  fear. 

Honolulu  is  on  a  hot,  moist  flat,  but  radiating  thence  are 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  249 

valleys  covered  with  taro  and  rice  fields,  where  the  visitor 
can  become  dry  and  cool.  A  light  rain  falls  at  Honolulu 
nearly  every  night,  quite  different  from  the  floods  which  drop 
on  Molokai  and  Hilo,  which  are  measured  not  in  inches  hut 
in  feet.  At  the  old  capital,  Lahaina,  it  is  still  warmer.  The 
isle  of  Hawaii  has  hundreds  of  waterfalls  dashing  into  the 
sea.  The  scenery  of  Kilauea  and  Haleakala  is  sublime,  but 
for  quiet  landscape  beauty  the  garden  isle  is  Kaui.  The  mean 
temperature  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  is  75°;  extremes  65° 
and  85°.  Honolulu  temperature  for  five  years  gives  the  high- 
est 88°  and  the  lowest  54°.  On  Maui  the  temperature  is 
higher,  and  on  Hawaii  lower;  Olaa,  60°  to  80°;  mean  tem- 
perature of  the  sea  70°. 

I  have  said  that  all  round  the  Pacific  its  borders  are  lined 
with  volcanoes,  active  and  extinct.  There  are  23  in  Chili 
alone.  Peru  has  many  volcanic  peaks,  though  not  generally 
active,  the  highest  ranging  from  19,000  to  22,000  feet. 
Kamchatka  has  twelve  active  and  twenty-six  extinct  volcanoes 
below  latitude  57°.  The  whole  chain  of  the  Kuriles  is  of 
volcanic  origin,  and  on  several  of  the  islands  are  active  craters. 
New  Zealand  has  a  number,  also  Mexico  and  Central  America. 
Says  Professor  Shaler,  of  Harvard,  in  his  Aspects  of  the  Earth, 
"  It  is  in  the  region  round  the  Pacific  ocean  that  we  find  the 
kings  of  this  race  of  giants.  Around  the  shores  of  this  great 
area  of  waters  we  have  a  singularly  continuous  line  of  vol- 
canic vents.  Counting  only  those  which  have  been  in  activity 
since  the  beginning  of  the  present  geological  period,  the  aggre- 
gate probably  amounts  to  many  hundreds." 

The  climate  of  Japan,  like  that  of  California,  is  varied, 
the  southern  isles,  near  the  tropics,  basking  in  perpetual 
summer,  while  the  Kuriles  partake  of  the  arctic  cold  of 
Kamchatka.  Winter  fills  the  mountains  with  snow,  from 
some  of  whose  peaks  it  never  disappears.  After  summer  are 
heavy  rains,  after  winter  lighter  ones. 

The  winds  are  southerly  at  Yokohama  and  on  the  Pacific 
coast  of  Japan;  in  the  sea  of  Japan  the  south-west  monsoon 
prevails  from  April  to  September.  As  a  rule  the  wind  is 
southerly  from  May  to  August,  and  in  calm  weather  land  and 
sea  breezes  alternate  as  elsewhere.  The  typhoons,  or  violent 
revolving  storms,  similar  to  the  cyclones  of  the  Indian  sea 
and  the  hurricanes  of  the  West  Indies,  come  once  a  year,  from 
July  to  September. 


250  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

The  earthquakes  of  Japan  have  heen  far  more  frequent  and 
destructive  than  any  known  to  history  on  the  opposite  coast. 
Without  going  back  to  tradition,  286  B  C,  when  Mount  Fuji 
rose  from  subterranean  realms  and  Biwa  lake  was  formed,  we 
have  authenticated  the  destruction  of  the  imperial  palace  in 
416,  and  severe  shakings  up  of  these  isles  scores  of  times 
since,  one  in  1855  destroying  16,000  buildings.  Among  the 
many  active  and  inactive  volcanic  peaks  rises  12,000  feet  the 
sacred  mountain  Fujisan,  conspicuous  far  out  at  sea,  with  a 
crater  500  feet  in  depth,  and  visited  by  pilgrims  in  early 
summer.  The  Malayan  archipelago  is  a  nest  of  volcanoes, 
where  eruptive  energy  has  reached  its  height.  Here  are  more 
great  cones  than  in  any  other  equal  area  in  the  world.  I  will 
give  a  few  examples  of  the  freaks  nature  here  sometimes  plays. 

Japan  can  boast  of  many  earthquakes  and  great  destruction 
of  lives  and  property;  as  at  Yeddo,  in  1703,  when  the  lives 
destroyed  numbered  190,000.  In  1721,  400,000  were  killed 
at  Peking,  and  in  1731,  95,000;  in  1746  at  Lima  and  Peru, 
18,000;  in  1797,  in  Quito,  41,000;  in  1830,  at  Canton,  6,0(/0; 
in  1859,  in  Quito,  5,000;  in  1861,  at  Mendoza,  12,000;  in 
1875,  in  Colombia,  14,000;  in  1880,  at  Manila,  3,000;  in 
1883,  at  Java,  50,000;  in  1888,  at  Kien  Shin,  4,000.  Not 
infrequently  Japan  villages  are  overwhelmed,  like  Simoda.  in 
1854. 

The  Aleutian  islands  are  a  volcanic  chain  along  the  whole 
length  of  which  are  warm  springs,  with  here  and  there  an 
intermittent  volcano.  Severe  winter  succeeds  a  cloudy  spring 
and  hot  summer.  The  vegetation  consists  of  low  scrubby 
trees  with  bushes,  grasses,  mosses,  and  lichens.  Vegetables 
are  grown  successfully,  and  in  places  the  hardier  grains.  On 
the  Alaskan  coast  are  localities  with  a  temperature  of  from 
58°  below  zero  to  95°  above.  There  are  points  on  the  coasts 
of  China  and  Japan  where  the  temperature  is  100°,  but  gener- 
ally the  climate  is  delightful.  Extremes  at  Canton,  42°  to  96°. 
Mean  at  Panama  86°,  at  San  Diego  65°,  at  San  Francisco  59°, 
gulf  of  California  80°,  Acapulco  90°,  Valdivia,  Chili,  52°,  San- 
tiago 55°,  Valparaiso  58°.  The  sun  and  the  salts  of  sea-water 
determine  the  circulation  of  ocean.  At  the  extreme  ends  of  the 
two  Americas,  near  the  north  and  south  poles,  the  rainfalls 
are  heavy;  in  the  Chilian  territory  of  Magellan  the  rainfall 
is  so  great  that  grain  cannot  be  grown;  but  toward  the  north 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  251 

it  lessens,  until  in  Atacama  there  is  nothing  more  than  an 
occasional  mist. 

Upon  the  line  of  volcanic  activity,  which  extends  from 
Japan  to  Java,  the  Philippines  have  frequent  earthquakes 
and  several  burning  mountains.  The  volcano  of  Papan- 
dayang,  9,000  feet  above  the  sea,  in  1772  had  4,000  feet  of  its 
top  blown  into  the  air  and  the  debris  distributed  over  forty 
villages.  The  eruption  of  Sumbowa,  in  1822,  was  heard  720 
miles  away,  while  but  26  of  the  12,000  inhabitants  of  the  prov- 
ince escaped  alive.  About  the  same  time  Galongoon  ex- 
ploded, destroying  140  villages  and  killing  4,000  people. 
There  was  an  eruption  of  Krakatoa  in  1883,  and  three  months 
afterward  there  was  an  explosion,  heard  1,500  miles  distant, 
which  blew  most  of  the  island  away,  and  raised  waves  in  the 
ocean  which,  sweeping  over  the  plantations  and  villages  of 
Sumatra  and  Java,  killed  30,000  people,  and  then  struck 
across  the  Pacific,  making  themselves  felt  on  the  American 
coast  and  in  the  Atlantic.  It  is  useless  any  one  attempting 
a  bigger  earthquake  story  than  this,  with  the  expectation  of 
its  being  believed. 

From  the  northern  end  of  the  Philippine  islands,  a  vol- 
canic belt  extends  along  their  eastern  side,  thence  to  Celebes 
and  Morty  island,  and  on  through  Java  and  Sumatra,  where 
are  many  active  and  extinct  craters,  with  frequent  earth- 
quakes, and  occasionally  severe  ones.  Java  alone  has  45  vol- 
canoes, and  in  1772  a  mountain  was  blown  up  and  40  towns 
destroyed. 

The  Philippine  islands  lie  wholly  within  the  tropics,  the 
southern  side  being  within  four  and  a  half  degrees  of  the 
equator.  The  heat  is  trying,  being  moist  and  the  air  too  often 
malarious.  The  bright  sun  of  the  dry  season  is  often  less 
difficult  to  bear  than  the  close  murky  stifling  atmosphere 
which  comes  with  the  rains.  Manila  always  seems  hot  and 
moist,  the  narrow  streets,  after  the  manner  of  the  Iberian 
towns,  tending  to  make  the  place  close  rather  than  cool. 
Being  within  range  of  the  monsoons,  the  Philippines  are 
swept  by  occasional  violent  hurricanes;  the  monsoons  bring 
rain  to  the  east  coast  in  October,  while  the  rainfall  on  the 
west  coasts  is  from  May  to  September.  Malaria  and  fever 
often  attack  the  unacclimated  in  the  low  river  and  shore  lands, 
while  in  the  higher  interior  the  air  is  as  pure  as  it  is  balmy. 


252  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

High  temperature  as  marked  by  the  thermometer  is  not  al- 
ways indicative  of  the  severest  or  most  disagreeable  heat. 
Thus  at  Manila,  where  the  climate  is  regarded  so  bad  for 
Europeans,  the  average  temperature  for  January  is  but  77°, 
for  February  78°,  for  March  81°,  April  83°,  May  84°,  June 
82°,  July  August  and  September  each  81°,  October  80°,  No- 
vember 79°,  and  December  77°.  On  the  lower  levels  of  the 
Philippines  the  temperature  is  seldom  below  60°  or  over  100°, 
yet  the  climate  is  far  more  trying  than  in  places  on  the  other 
side  of  the  ocean  where  the  extremes  are  45°  and  115°.  But 
far  worse  than  heat  is  the  malaria;  both  however  may  be 
avoided  by  taking  to  the  mountains  where  the  air  is  cool,  dry, 
and  invigorating.  During  the  monsoons  the  rain  descends 
in  torrents;  the  annual  rainfall  at  Manila  is  100  inches;  in 
Agusan  valley,  Mindanao,  156  inches.  Typhoons,  originating 
in  the  Pacific,  swing  with  a  curve  over  these  islands  on  their 
way  to  China,  causing  at  times  great  damage.  While  Iloilo 
is  nearer  the  equator  than  Manila,  it  is  cooler  at  all  seasons, 
owing  to  its  situation  close  to  the  sea,  and  the  prevailing 
winds.  Though  there  are  disagreeable  times  and  places,  the 
climate  of  the  Philippines  is  by  no  means  altogether  bad. 
During  the  cool  dry  season,  which  is  from  October  to  March, 
the  other  months  being  characterized  as  hot  and  wet,  the . 
weather  is  in  some  respects  delightful,  though  the  northern 
islands  are  subject  to  storms,  as  they  are  in  the  line  of  ty- 
phoons which  revel  in  the  China  sea,  with  a  course  from 
northeast  to  southwest.  The  time  of  their  coming  is  from 
July  to  September,  though  they  are  liable  to  appear  before  or 
after  these  months,  but  seldom  south  of  latitude  9°.  Heavy 
rains  attend  the  typhoons,  all  destructive  of  life  and  property. 

Thus  Jansen  illustrates  the  Asiatic  monsoon.  "  Sudden 
blasts  come  from  the  east;  these  are  often  followed  by  inter- 
vals of  calm.  The  clouds  gathering  in  the  clear  heaven,  and 
driving  across  one  another,  indicate  the  strife  of  adverse  cur- 
rents encountering  in  the  upper  regions  of  the  atmosphere. 
The  electricity  thrown  off  from  these  masses,  in  whose  depths 
it  mysteriously  accomplishes  in  tranquillity  and  silence  the 
mighty  task  imposed  upon  it  by  nature,  then  reveals  itself  in 
all  its  blinding,  dazzling  majesty.  It  flashes  and  its  noises 
disturb  the  mind  of  the  mariner  with  uneasy  apprehensions, 
and  no  atmospheric  phenomenon  produces  upon  him  a  greater 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  253 

impression  than  a  violent  storm  in  calm  weather.  Day  and 
night  the  thunder  growls;  the  clouds  are  in  continual  move- 
ment, and  the  darkened  air,  loaded  with  vapor,  rages  in 
whirlwinds.  The  struggle  which  the  clouds  seem  at  once  to 
invite  and  to  dread  renders  them  more  keenly  athirst,  and 
they  have  recourse  to  the  most  extraordinary  means  to  collect 
water.  When  they  cannot  obtain  it  from  the  atmosphere, 
they  descend  in  the  form  of  a  trumpet  and  greedily  absorb  it 
from  the  surface  of  the  sea.  These  water-spouts  are  frequent 
at  the  changes  of  the  season,  and  especially  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  small  groups  of  islands,  which  seem  to  facilitate  their 
formation.  The  wind  frequently  prevents  them  from  gather- 
ing form  and  density;  but  in  their  place  wind-spouts  rise  with 
arrow-like  speed,  and  the  sea  appears  to  make  vain  efforts 
to  overcome  them.  The  furious  billows  arise,  foam,  and  roar 
in  their  passage.  Woe  to  the  seaman  who  knows  not  how  to 
avoid  them! " 

China  has  three  climatic  belts,  extending  east  and  west; 
the  northern  belt,  comprising  Mongolia,  lies  opposite  British 
Columbia  and  Washington,  and  is  too  cold  for  tea  and  rice. 
The  central  belt  borders  on  the  Japan  and  Yellow  seas,  lies 
opposite  California,  is  drained  by  the  Hoang-ho  and  Yangtse, 
has  mild  winters  and  warm  summers,  and  grows  successfully 
not  only  rice  and  wheat,  but  the  better  kinds  of  tea,  with  silk 
and  cotton  in  the  eastern  part.  It  has  the  climate  and  the 
trees  and  plants  of  the  south  temperate  zone,  forest  trees  in 
the  mountains,  with  the  mulberry  orange  and  bamboo,  cot- 
ton sugarcane  and  jujube  in  the  lower  lands.  The  middle 
part  is  the  granary  of  the  Far  East,  and  might  supply  the 
whole  Asiatic  coast  with  rice.  The  southern  belt  borders  on 
the  open  ocean  and  the  China  sea,  lies  opposite  the  Hawaiian 
islands  and  Mexico  and  near  the  Philippines,  and  is  hot;  many 
of  the  plants  of  the  temperate  zone,  however,  are  here  in- 
digenous, but  are  less  thrifty  than  further  north. 

Hongkong  was  at  first  a  very  unhealthy  spot,  full  of  ma- 
laria and  malignant  fever,  due  largely  it  was  thought  to  the 
upturning  of  the  soil,  which  is  a  disintegrated  granite,  but 
by  systematic  works  the  place  has  become  greatly  improved  in 
this  respect.  Yet  it  is  not  a  healthy  place,  for  even  now  at 
intervals  there  comes  from  the  mainland  or  elsewhere  a  bu- 
bonic or  other  plague  which  leaves  in  trail  a  mortality  so 


251  THE  ItfEW  PACIFIC 

appalling  as  sometimes  seriously  to  threaten  the  prosperity 
of  the  colony.  Of  the  climate  Colquhoun  says,  "  During  the 
summer  months,  from  April  to  September  inclusive,  when  the 
southwest  monsoon  prevails,  the  heat  and  rain  are  great,  and 
Victoria  loses  the  benefit  of  the  wind.  From  October  to  April 
the  northeast  monsoon  prevails,  and  little  rain  falls.  '  The  air 
is  cool  and  bracing,  fires  being  in  common  use  until  the  end 
of  February.  The  temperature  varies  from  about  40°  to  90°, 
the  coolest  month  being  January  and  the  hottest  August. 
The  average  annual  rainfall  is  about  80  inches,  mainly  con- 
tributed by  the  summer  months.  From  time  to  time  Hong- 
kong is  visited,  usually  about  the  date  of  the  autumn  equinox, 
by  typhoons,  which  work  havoc  among  the  shipping  in  the 
harbor  and  occasionally  among  the  buildings  on  the  land." 

Englishmen  live  in  India  to  administer  its  affairs,  but  not 
to  labor;  and  these  by  taking  good  care  of  themselves,  keep- 
ing out  of  the  sun  in  the  heat  of  the  day,  with  long  annual 
vacations  in  the  mountains  for  those  dwelling  in  the  lowlands, 
and  occasional  visits  to  England,  manage  to  exist  for  a  while, 
though  with  life  more  or  less  curtailed  by  reason  of  the  cli- 
mate. It  is  true  that  their  death  rate,  reckoned  for  a  century, 
is  less  than  that  of  the  natives;  but  this  proves  nothing,  ex- 
cept that  the  natives  die  too  easily.  So  with  regard  to  French- 
men in  Martinique,  Tonquin,  and  Cayenne,  some  of  them  can 
live  there  long  enough  to  establish  and  conduct  colonial  gov- 
ernment and  collect  taxes,  but  not  with  French  institutions 
permanently  to  plant  the  French  people  in  those  parts.  It  is 
the  same  with  the  Dutch  in  Java,  and  all  the  European  col- 
onizers in  Africa  and  the  West  Indies.  The  climate  of  the 
tropics  may  be  beneficial  for  some  diseases,  but  for  the  perma- 
nent residence  of  white  men,  there  is  abundant  proof  to  the 
contrary. 

The  climates  of  China  are  more  varied  if  possible  than 
those  of  the  United  States.  It  may  be  said  that  all  the  phase 
of  temperate  torrid  and  frigid  zones  are  here  presented  in 
endless  variety.  The  winters  of  the  northern  provinces  dif- 
fer little  from  those  of  Siberia,  while  in  the  south  are  places 
where  one  has  to  endure  the  heat  of  hottest  India.  Between 
these  two  extremes,  in  the  temperate  zone,  between  the  val- 
leys and  mountains,  the  sea  and  the  plains,  there  is  a  world  of 
beauty  and  variety. 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  255 

Korea  has  a  charming  climate,  alike  for  natives  and  for- 
eigners. For  nine  months  of  the  year  the  sky  is  bright  and 
unclouded,  with  a  dry  warm  air  by  day  and  cool  nights;  dur- 
ing the  hot,  rainy  season,  which  comes  in  July  August  and 
September,  the  air  is  cooled  by  sea  breezes,  and  is  seldom 
oppressive.  Of  the  36  inches  annual  average  rainfall,  22 
inches  come  during  the  rainy  season.  The  climate  of  tropical 
Hainan,  an  island  in  the  China  sea  near  the  mainland,  varies 
with  the  varying  altitudes  of  the  interior,  which  is  a  fascinat- 
ing conglomeration  of  mountains  and  valleys. 

Half  of  the  island  of  Formosa  lies  within  the  tropics,  and 
the  whole  of  it  has  a  somewhat  treacherous  climate.  During 
the  months  of  June  July  and  August,  the  heated  atmosphere 
carries  a  degree  of  moisture  at  once  oppressive  and  enervat- 
ing. Typhoons  come  in  September,  when  the  tropical  storms 
tend  to  clear  the  air.  October  and  November,  in  the  north- 
ern part,  and  in  the  higher  altitudes,  are  charming  months. 
The  rainy  season  is  from  December  to  February,  when  the 
fall  is  heavy.  Owing  to  the  presence  there  of  the  Japan  cur- 
rent, and  the  mountain-tops  which  pierce  the  moisture-laden 
clouds,  the  heavier  rainfall  is  along  the  eastern  side  of  the 
island.  Growth  and  decay  being  alike  rapid,  the  air  is  thick 
with  malaria  except  when  the  monsoon  drives  it  away.  Ma- 
larial fever  here  assumes  the  form  of  general  and  universal 
scourge,  natives  and  foreigners  suffering  alike.  Asiatic  chol- 
era is  also  dreaded  as  a  pestilence,  the  bacteria  sweeping  over 
the  country  at  intervals  with  fatal  effect. 

The  typhoon,  or  ta-fung,  great  wind,  of  the  Chinese,  springs 
up  under  the  hot  sun  of  the  Indian  ocean,  sweeps  over  the 
Malay  and  Philippine  archipelagoes,  and  continues  along  the 
coast  of  China  to  Japan,  in  its  course  wrecking  ships,  tearing 
up  trees,  and  demolishing  houses,  all  at  a  loss  of  thousands 
of  lives  and  the  destruction  of  much  property.  Felix  Julian 
thus  gives  his  experience  of  a  hurricane  which  caught  the 
frigate  La  Belle  Pouk,  and  in  which  he  fancied  he  discovered 
the  direction  of  the  gyratory  movement  of  cyclones.  "  The 
breeze  blew  from  the  southeast,"  he  says,  "the  sea  rolled 
heavily.  Towards  evening  the  barometer  sank  abruptly  be- 
neath the  lowest  limit  marked  on  its  scale.  The  wind  as  it 
freshened  veered  to  the  south;  it  gradually  increased  in  force, 
and  ended  by  breaking  loose  with  irresistible  violence.  At 


256  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

midnight,  in  spite  of  the  most  energetic  exertions,  the  dis- 
masted frigate,  without  helm,  without  sails,  lay  on  her  broad- 
side, with  her  rigging  in  tatters  and  her  deck  swept  by  a 
furious  sea.  It  was  not  until  two  hours  later  that  we  reached 
the  centre  of  the  cyclone.  A  sudden  calm  succeeded  the  first 
crisis  of  this  atmospheric  convulsion,  but  it  was  of  brief  dura- 
tion. The  winds  which  had  abandoned  us  in  the  south  reap- 
peared in  the  west  and  north  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning. 
We  entered  the  second  segment  of  the  circle  of  the  storm. 
Caught  this  time  on  the  left,  our  ship  keeled  over  anew,  un- 
able to  resist  the  enormous  pressure  directed  against  her 
side." 

"  Their  ordinary  form,"  says  the  author  of  La  Mer,  "  is  that 
of  a  funnel.  A  seaman  overtaken  by  one  said  to  me,  '  I  saw 
myself,  as  it  were,  at  the  bottom  of  a  crater  of  an  enormous 
volcano,  around  me  nothing  but  darkness;  above,  an  aperture 
and  a  gleam  of  light/  Once  involved  in  it  there  is  no  hope 
of  drawing  back;  it  holds  you  in  its  grasp.  Savage  roarings, 
plaintive  bowlings,  rattling  and  shrieks  of  the  drowning,  the 
groans  of  the  unfortunate  vessel  which  having  sprung  to  life 
again  as  in  her  own  forest,  bewails  her  approaching  end;  and 
all  this  appalling  tumult  does  not  prevent  you  from  hearing 
the  shrill  hissing  of  serpents  in  the  shrouds  and  rigging. 
Suddenly,  silence!  The  nucleus  of  the  wind-spout  then  passes 
afar  in  a  burst  of  horrible  thunder,  which  deafens  and  almost 
blinds  you.  You  recover  yourself.  It  has  rent  and  split  the 
masts,  and  not  a  sound  was  heard!  " 

The  climate  of  the  Japan  islands  is  influenced  by  their 
proximity  to  the  continent  of  Asia,  the  changes  being  less 
slow  and  more  pronounced  than  in  more  distant  isles.  The 
temperature  on  the  continent  becomes  very  cold  in  winter, 
and  this  affects  the  air  of  the  islands,  being  below  freezing 
everywhere  throughout  the  country,  except  in  the  vicinity  of 
Okunawa.  Snow  at  times  clothes  in  white  the  entire  group, 
though  in  the  southern  part  it  remains  but  a  short  time.  In 
summer  the  great  continent,  being  raised  to  a  high  tempera- 
ture, the  islands  are  affected  accordingly,  though  not  in  such  a 
marked  degree  as  in  winter.  The  winds  are  likewise  governed 
by  the  heating  and  cooling  of  the  continent,  being  toward 
the  mainland  in  summer  and  away  from  it  in  winter.  As  the 
continent  cools  in  autumn  the  continental  atmosphere  be- 


CLIMATES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  257 

comes  denser,  and  the  pressure  increases  until  strong  winds 
from  the  south-southwest  prevail.  On  the  other  hand,  when 
the  air  of  the  continent  becomes  heated  by  the  suns  of  spring 
and  summer,  it  becomes  rarer  and  lighter,  with  southeast 
currents.  So  that  with  southeast  winds  in  summer,  and 
northwest  winds  in  winter,  the  mountain  systems  meanwhile 
running  southwest  and  northeast  and  dividing  the  islands 
into  two  sides,  front  and  back,  the  amount  of  precipita- 
tion differs  on  the  two  sides,  as  well  as  during  the  two  sea- 
sons. 

Japan  has  some  four  or  five  hundred  temperature  and  rain- 
gauge  stations,  all  provided  with  mercurial  barometer,  wet 
and  dry  bulb  thermometers,  maximum  thermometer,  mini- 
mum thermometer,  windvane,  anemometer,  rain-gauge,  and 
atometer.  At  some  of  the  stations  observations  are  taken 
hourly.  The  islands  are  so  mountainous,  the  one  level  tract 
being  the  plain  of  Kwanto,  that  temperature  varies  with  the 
altitude,  from  far  below  freezing  to  over  120°.  Autumn  is 
warmer  than  spring.  There  is  less  variation  in  the  velocity  of 
the  wind  at  night  than  by  day,  when  it  begins  to  increase  at 
sunrise,  and  reaches  the  maximum  at  four  o'clock.  The 
strongest  winds  come  in  December  and  January;  the  least 
wind  is  from  August  to  October.  Some  of  the  most  violent 
gales  of  the  year  are  in  summer,  when  the  mean  velocity  is  at 
the  minimum. 

The  humidity  of  the  atmosphere  is  governed  by  tempera- 
ture, being  relatively  great  in  summer  and  small  in  winter, 
with  the  maximum  in  August  and  the  minimum  in  December. 
And  as  the  variations  of  temperature  are  influenced  by  lo- 
cality, it  is  so  with  regard  to  humidity.  On  the  back  Nippon, 
for  instance,  the  minimum  humidity  is  between  April  and 
May,  and  the  maximum  in  July;  on  the  front  Nippon  the 
maximum  is  in  July  and  the  minimum  in  February.  As  the 
country  sits  in  the  sea,  the  relative  humidity  is  high  every- 
where, though  highest  at  Hokkaido,  the  mean  of  the  year 
being  85,  and  not  lower  than  79  in  the  driest  month.  In  July 
it  reaches  91,  owing  to  the  cold  current  from  Kamchatka, 
which  strikes  the  warm  air  of  the  islands  and  produces  dense 
fogs.  As  to  the  sky,  during  the  day  the  clouds  hang  heaviest 
over  the  land,  and  at  night  over  the  sea.  On  the  back  Nippon 
the  amount  of  cloud  is  great  in  winter  and  small  in  summer; 


258  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

on  the  front  Nippon  it  is  the  reverse.  The  mean  annual  sun- 
shine is  in  duration  about  two-fifths  of  the  day,  but  the  varia- 
tions are  different  on  the  two  sides  of  the  islands.  So  with 
precipitation;  the  rainfall  is  greater  on  the  back  Nippon, 
which  drains  into  the  Japan  sea,  in  autumn  and  winter  than 
in  spring  and  summer,  while  on  the  front  Nippon,  which  faces 
the  Pacific,  the  reverse  is  the  case. 


CHAPTEB   XI 

MINES   AND   MANUFACTURES 

IT  is  worthy  of  remark  that  all  the  countries  round  the  Pa- 
cific are  essentially  metalliferous,  abounding  in  silver  and 
gold,  while,  however  much  of  iron  and  coal  the  Atlantic  sea- 
boards may  contain,  there  were  never  present,  with  some  few 
exceptions  like  the  isthmuses  which  connect  the  two  Ameri- 
cas, and  which  belong  to  the  Pacific  as  much  as  to  the  At- 
lantic, any  large  deposits  of  the  precious  metals.  On  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  in  India  and  China  gold  was 
found  sufficient  for  the  requirements  of  the  ancients,  but  the 
vast  deposits  of  Australia  and  America  were  held  secret  until 
the  world  broadened,  and  commerce  required  more  currency. 

Great  as  was  the  effect  upon  the  mind  of  man,  in  the  work 
of  illumination  and  enlightenment,  of  the  discovery  and  ex- 
ploration of  the  Pacific  ocean,  the  effect  of  the  precious  metals 
found  at  various  times  and  in  various  ways  along  its  shores 
on  the  world's  finance,  commerce,  and  manufactures  was  none 
the  less  marked.  The  early  gold-gatherings  which  were  sent 
to  Spain  were  felt  in  the  factories  of  England  and  Flanders; 
the  gold  of  California  vitalized  the  industries  of  the  United 
States  and  saved  the  credit  of  the  nation  during  the  civil 
war;  the  gold  of  Australia  gave  the  impetus  to  England's 
colonization  and  spread  of  empire  that  make  her  now  the  mis- 
tress of  the  world. 

The  gold  of  the  Pacific;  how  tell  the  story!  Marco  Polo 
and  Mandeville  went  to  China  many  centuries  ago,  and  when 
they  returned  hiding  in  ragged  raiment  stores  of  precious 
stones,  they  told  of  the  great  khan  and  far  Cathay,  how  there 
were  cities  whose  temples  were  roofed  with  gold,  so  resplen- 
dent that  when  the  sun  shone  the  eyes  could  not  rest  on  them. 
And  the  streets  were  paved  with  silver,  and  the  very  portals 
of  the  palaces  studded  with  gems.  Toward  the  north  was 
opulent  Zipangu,  whose  wealth  no  man  could  tell. 

259 


260  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

Cross  now  to  the  other  side  and  see  where  Columbus  came 
in  search  of  these  great  riches,  telling  Christ  if  he  would  give 
them  him,  they  should  rescue  his  holy  sepulchre  from  the 
infidel  Turks.  The  Genoese  would  find  a  short  way  to  this 
Far  East,  to  this  Cathay  and  Zipangu  on  the  other  side  of 
India;  but  the  long  drawn  continent  of  the  Americas  ob- 
structed him,  and  though  he  sought  diligently  for  a  passage 
through  or  round  this  land,  he  found  it  not;  so  he  picked  up 
a  little  gold  and  went  home  and  died. 

A  rollicking  adventurer  from  Spain,  Balboa  by  name,  find- 
ing himself  one  day  bankrupt  on  the  streets  of  Santo  Do- 
mingo, to  escape  his  angry  creditors  and  get  to  sea,  had  him- 
self headed  up  in  an  empty  cask  and  rolled  on  board  a  vessel 
bound  for  Darien.  Assuming  in  due  time  the  leadership  of  a 
colony  established  there,  and  hearing  of  a  sea  toward  the 
south,  where  were  gold  and  pearls,  with  a  small  party  he  ad- 
ventured thither,  found  the  great  South  sea,  found  the  gold 
and  pearls,  and  finally  found  death,  the  death  of  a  traitor,  but 
falsely  accused  by  a  jealous  governor,  whose  deeds  were  sanc- 
tioned by  a  sovereign  all  too  ready  to  cancel  the  services  of  his 
discoverers  by  killing  them.  •  , 

It  was  in  the  bay  of  Panama,  in  the  year  1513,  when  the 
valiant  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa,  helmeted  and  cased  in  steel, 
with  drawn  sword  waded  far  out  into  the  water  and  took  pos- 
session of  that  great  sea  for  the  king  of  Spain.  He  called 
upon  the  waves  to  hear  him,  and  upon  the  winds  to  witness  the 
solemn  act,  that  he  then  and  there  took  possession  of  all  those 
waters,  of  the  shores  they  washed  and  the  islands  they  encom- 
passed, of  the  treasures  they  contained,  gold  and  gems  and 
pearls,  fishes  and  birds,  and  the  people  that  inhabited  their 
lands,  all  this  for  his  sovereign  lord  the  king,  whose  right  he 
would  maintain  against  all  comers.  Far  to  the  south  that 
voice  was  heard,  and  to  the  north,  and  across  to  Asia;  the 
porpoises  and  sea-gulls  heard  it,  and  the  cormorants  of  the 
cavalier's  own  country;  for  soon  came  Spain  demanding  from 
the  nations  allegiance  and  service,  acknowledgment  of  owner- 
ship by  reason  of  the  pope's  promise  and  the  antics  of  the  ad- 
venturer whom  his  king  had  so  quickly  beheaded  out  of  the 
way.  And  in  the  train  of  this  Spanish  claim  to  domination 
came  ravening  wolves,  one  wolf  going  hence  to  the  north  and 
one  wolf  to  the  south.  The  wolf  who  went  to  the  north  was 
called  Cortes,  and  he  to  the  south  Pizarro. 


MINES  AND   MANUFACTURES  261 

v 

From  Cuba  Hernan  Cortes  set  out  with  men  and  ships, 
some  half  dozen  years  after  Vasco  Nunez  had  discovered  the 
South  sea,  to  find  wealth  and  adventure  in  Mexico,  his  first 
chivalrous  act  being  to  cheat  his  patron,  Velazquez  the  gov- 
ernor, out  of  the  entire  outfit,  all  in  the  line  of  loyalty,  re- 
ligion, and  Spanish  honor.  Coasting  northward  the  wolves 
heard  of  the  mighty  Montezuma,  how  he  ruled  as  God  and 
man  all  that  region  from  sea  to  sea,  and  had  stores  of  gold  so 
great  that  houses  could  not  contain  them.  Whereat  the 
wolves  smiled,  and  burning  their  ships  for  fear  of  repentance, 
trotted  off  to  the  capital,  to  catch  this  great  king,  who  granted 
them  admittance,  mistaking  the  chief  wolf  for  an  expected 
ambassador  from  heaven.  Traitorously  these  Spanish  wolves 
robbed  the  great  king,  and  then  traitorously  slew  him,  all  in 
the  line  of  loyalty,  religion,  and  Spanish  honor. 

The  wolf  who  went  south,  another  six  years  later,  with  a 
small  band  of  adventurers,  also  found  a  great  and  opulent  na- 
tion, but  just  then  weakened  by  war,  so  that  a  handful  of 
mailed  cavaliers  might  turn  the  scale  either  way.  The  king 
of  this  country  saw  the  strangers,  and  listened  to  their  tale 
in  wonder.  As  easily  as  Montezuma  had  been  done  to  death 
by  Cortes,  Atahualpa  was  entrapped,  robbed,  and  treacher- 
ously slain,  all  again  in  the  line  of  loyalty,  religion,  and  Span- 
ish honor. 

In  neither  Mexico  nor  Peru  was  the  use  of  iron  known  in 
those  days,  but  gold  and  silver  were  abundant,  and  among 
both  Aztecs  and  Peruvians  were  many  skilled  artisans,  workers 
in  gold  and  feathers.  After  Cortes  had  made  Montezuma 
prisoner,  he  promised  his  release  on  payment  of  ransom,  which 
freely  came  forward  in  form  of  gold  in  dust,  quoits,  leaves, 
and  trinkets  constituting  to  some  extent  media  of  trade.  All 
the  while  the  Spaniards  demanded  more,  increasing  the  ran- 
som under  some  trivial  plea  from  time  to  time,  until  the  spoils 
amounted  to  $6,000,000.  In  like  ma'nner  in  Peru  collectors 
were  sent  to  distant  parts,  tributes  were  imposed,  and  tombs 
and  temples  profaned  to  gather  in  the  required  ransom.  For 
Atahualpa  had  said,  "  I  will  fill  this  room  as  high  as  you  can 
reach  with  gold,  if  you  will  let  me  go;  and  I  will  fill  that  room 
twice  full  with  silver."  And  the  plunder  here  was  twice  as 
much  as  that  in  Mexico. 

How  the  world  advances!    How  different  these  times  from 


262  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

those,  swords  turned  into  pruning-hooks,  lions  and  lambs 
sleeping  sweetly  together,  and  the  rest.  War  machines  are  so 
nicely  oiled  now,  French  manners  so  much  more  Frenchy;  and 
the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  sisterhood  of  women,  and 
freedom  fraternity  and  equality  have  come;  justice  humanity 
and  the  rights  of  man  have  come;  universal  liberty  and  uni- 
versal equity  have  come;  culture  refinement  and  sweet  char- 
ity, all,  all  have  come.  And  yet  Cortes  in  Mexico  and  Pizarro 
in  Peru  seem  to  me  very  like  France  and  Germany  in  China. 

Some  centuries  pass,  during  which  there  is  continuous  gold- 
gathering  on  both  sides  of  the  Pacific,  and  then  California. 
Here  the  performance  is  quite  different.  The  love  of  gold 
remains,  but  the  love  of  glory  has  died  away.  No  thought  of 
conquest  or  conversion,  but  just  a  huddling  of  humanity  from 
every  quarter  of  the  earth,  and  a  rushing  hither  and  thither 
about  the  Sierra  foothills,  grabbing  up  the  dirt  and  washing 
out  the  metal,  roaring  and  swearing  and  drinking  and  fight- 
ing, many  of  them  dying  in  their  frantic  attempts  to  secure 
more  and  more  of  the  sweet  stuff.  Five  hundred  ships  lay  at 
anchor  in  San  Francisco  bay  in  1849,  three-fourths  of  them 
deserted,  while  50,000  diggers  camped  in  the  chaparral. 

Among  the  more  immediate  and  proximate  effects  of  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California  was  to  bring  together  repre- 
sentatives of  rather  pronounced  types  from  every  nation  of 
the  earth,  from  southern  California  and  Mexico  first;  then 
from  the  Hawaiian  islands,  Oregon,  and  South  America;  also 
from  the  Atlantic  states,  Europe,  India,  Africa,  China;  and 
with  the  others  a  full  delegation  from  the  penal  settlement  of 
Australia.  Until  the  coming  of  these  last,  Sydney  ducks  as 
they  were  called,  there  were  no  better  behaved  or  more  honest 
people  on  earth  than  this  conglomeration  of  gold-seekers,  who 
never  locked  doors,  but  left  the  stuff  in  tin  cans  or  broken 
bottles  on  the  shelf  while  away  at  work  during  the  day  or  off 
carousing  at  night.  It  was  the  better  class  of  young  men  who 
had  come,  representatives  from  the  best  of  every  nation,  the 
intelligent  and  enterprising,  not  the  lazy  rich  nor  the  squalid 
poor.  And  for  a  few  brief  months  in  1848  and  1849  there 
was  order  without  law.  But  later,  when  the  birds  of  evil 
omen  appeared,  with  robberies  murders  and  incendiarism, 
then  popular  tribunals  sprang  up,  and  hangings  became  easy 
and  frequent. 


MINES   AND  MANUFACTURES  263 

This  California  gold  excitement  advanced  the  development 
of  western  North  America  a  full  half  century.  Settlement 
was  slowly  creeping  westward  when  the  cry  was  called,  and  at 
a  bound  it  leaped  over  half  a  continent,  from  the  Mississippi 
to  the  Pacific.  The  region  intervening  was  then,  and  for  some 
time  afterward,  occupied  chiefly  by  buffaloes  and  Indians,  and 
another  quarter-century  passed  before  they  were  greatly 
cleared  away,  even  with  the  Pacific  seaboard  populated.  Few 
of  the  gold-gatherers  came  to  stay,  though  many  remained, 
principally  because  they  could  not  get  away.  These,  and 
others  who  a  little  later  came  to  make  a  home  here  were  a 
brave,  chivalrous,  and  liberal-minded  people,  and  so  remained, 
and  so  became  known  and  recognized  the  world  over,  until 
with  civil  war  came  that  greater  than  the  Australia  convict 
curse,  the  railway  monopolist,  who  with  the  aid  of  the  govern- 
ment crushed  the  spirit  of  the  people  and  supplanted  enter- 
prise with  desolation. 

The  gold  development  which  followed  the  occupation  of 
California,  the  rich  discoveries  in  Australia  shortly  afterward, 
followed  by  continued  rich  finds  in  Nevada,  Montana,  Col- 
orado, and  finally  the  great  uncovering  of  gold  and  diamonds 
in  Africa,  while  civilized  humanity  was  fast  overspreading  the 
earth  to  the  obliteration  and  extermination  of  weaker  peo- 
ples, completed  the  transformations  of  the  century.  Califor- 
nia has  given  to  the  world  in  precious  metals  not  less  than 
$2,000,000,000;  Nevada  and  the  Eocky  mountain  states  as 
much  more.  This  money  went  east  to  make  rich  those  who 
are  too  apt  to  grudge  the  coast  its  just  due  in  the  way  of  aid 
toward  development,  all  which  with  the  advent  of  the  New 
Pacific  let  us  hope  will  be  felt  no  more. 

For  the  first  decade  after  discovery  the  annual  yield  of  gold 
in  California  averaged  $53,000,000;  second  decade,  $36,000,- 
000;  third  decade,  $19,000,000;  fourth  decade,  $14,000,000. 
The  total  annual  mineral  product  of  California  which  in  1895 
was  valued  at  $22,844,664,  was  in  1898  $27,389,079,  gold 
being  first  in  importance,  then  copper,  and  then  quicksilver. 

As  soon  as  the  general  character  of  deposits  and  the  distri- 
bution of  the  gold  became  known,  a  series  of  mining  excite- 
ments set  in,  rushes  hither  and  thither  in  search  of  some  great 
harbor  or  home  of  gold.  In  1852  there  was  the  Gold  Bluff 
excitement,  it  having  been  reported  that  on  the  beach  above 


264  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

Trinidad  the  ocean  waves  had  thrown  upon  the  shore  ship 
loads  of  gold.  Then  Kern  river  became  the  attraction,  stages 
from  Sacramento  and  all  points  being  daily  loaded  to  their 
fullest  capacity.  The  Fraser  river  mines  nearly  depopulated 
San  Francisco  in  1857;  and  then  Washoe,  as  Nevada  was 
called,  followed  by  a  decade  of  fierce  gambling  in  stocks  at 
San  Francisco,  from  the  evil  effects  of  which  the  country  did 
not  recover  for  thirty  years.  Men  will  rush  upon  any  number 
of  unknown  evils,  hidden  from  immediate  view,  in  order  to 
attain  pleasure  and  power,  or  the  substance  which  most  of  all 
symbolizes  pleasure  and  power. 

From  $150,000,000  in  1851  the  world's  annual  production 
of  gold  has  fallen  to  $100,000,000  at  the  present  time.  It  is 
scarcely  to  be  expected  that  new  discoveries  and  increased 
facilities  will  keep  pace  with  the  increased  demand  for  the 
purposes  of  currency  and  the  arts,  although  there  is  more  gold 
in  the  ground  than  has  ever  been  taken  out  of  it,  and  more 
men  and  better  machinery  with  which  to  mine  it.  The  world's 
gold  coinage  was  $437,719,342  in  1898  as  against  $195,899,- 
517  in  1896. 

The  United  States  now  manufacture  iron  for  England,  Rus- 
sia, Japan,  Africa,  and  Australia.  The  Alabama  and  Penn- 
sylvania furnaces  began  to  furnish  ship  plates  and  frames  for 
European  yards,  when  the  conclusion  was  reached  that  if  we 
could  do  this  better  than  any  one  else,  we  could  build  the 
whole  ship,  and  so  we  began  building  the  best  steamships,  as 
once  before  we  had  revolutionized  sailing  vessels  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  Baltimore  clipper  for  the  California  trade. 

Both  the  Cascade-Nevada  and  the  Rocky  ranges  have  their 
starting-point  in  the  highlands  of  Alaska,  the  former  running 
parallel  with  the  coast  until  lost  in  the  California  peninsula, 
the  latter  continuing  on  to  the  southern  end  of  South  Amer- 
ica. 

Oregon's  wealth  is  in  her  grain  and  grass  fields,  rather  than 
in  her  mineral  deposits;  yet  of  these  latter  there  is  no  small 
store,  as  coal  and  iron,  all  the  precious  metals,  besides  cin- 
nabar, nickel,  copper,  fine  stones,  and  marble.  So  it  is  with 
Washington;  both  of  these  states  have  given  forth  and  still 
possess  much  metal. 

Washington  coal  was  first  shipped  to  San  Francisco  from 
Bellingham  bay,  from  a  mine  opened  within  the  city  limits  of 


MINES   AND  MANUFACTURES  265 

Whatcom,  owned  by  the  Bellingham  Bay  Improvement  com- 
pany. Bituminous  coal  suitable  for  steamer  and  railway  en- 
gines is  shipped  by  the  Blue  Canyon  Coal  company,  whose 
railroad  from  the  mines  and  bunkers  at  tide-water  afford  the 
best  facilities.  Then  there  are  the  Fairhaven  company's 
mines,  and  many  others.  Of  the  211  shingle-mills  in  the  state, 
one-fourth  are  at  Whatcom.  The  salmon  pack  of  Puget  sound 
is  large,  Whatcom  alone  having  ten  canneries  employing  3,000 
persons.  Also  tributary  to  Bellingham  bay  are  the  Mount 
Baker  gold  mines,  forty  miles  distant. 

Nevada  likewise  came  on  apace,  with  its  Comstock  bonanza, 
and  its  Pioche  and  Bodie  districts;  then  Utah  and  Arizona, 
Idaho  and  Montana,  Wyoming  and  New  Mexico.  And  last  of 
all  Alaska.  Indeed,  instead  of  particularizing,  one  sweeping 
assertion  will  suffice  for  all,  and  be  not  far  from  the  truth, 
namely,  that  throughout  this  vast  area  of  mountains,  valleys, 
and  sandy  wastes,  on  every  side  of  the  Pacific,  the  earth  is 
largely  impregnated  with  the  precious  metals,  with  here  and 
there  large  deposits  of  the  baser  sort.  Nevada  has  given  in  a 
single  year  precious  metals  to  the  value  of  $50,000,000,  and 
in  all  some  $800,000,000.  Utah  also  has  some  great  mines, 
and  is  a  better  agricultural  state  than  Nevada,  whose  chief 
industry  now  is  stock  raising.  Arizona  is  essentially  a  min- 
ing country.  For  some  years  past  the  New  Mexican  bullion 
product  of  gold  and  silver  has  averaged  $4,000,000  per  annum. 

The  silence  of  the  ages  was  broken  in  British  Columbia  by 
the  cry  of  gold  on  Fraser  river  in  1857.  The  days  of  the  fur 
hunters  were  then  numbered.  Neither  the  native  men  nor 
the  native  beasts  could  long  live  in  the  vicinity  of  roaring 
camps  of  miners  fresh  from  the  gold-fields  of  California. 
Provisional  government,  restricted  hitherto  to  the  island  of 
Vancouver,  was  extended  over  the  mainland,  and  the  colony 
of  British  Columbia  took  the  place  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  com- 
pany monopoly.  From  Fraser  river  the  hunt  for  gold  ex- 
tended to  Thompson  river,  Quesnel,  and  Cariboo;  to  Van- 
couver and  Queen  Charlotte  islands,  and  later  to  Omineca, 
Stikeen,  and  Klondike.  Valuable  coal  deposits  were  early 
found  on  Vancouver  island  and  the  mainland,  which  proved 
of  great  value  in  the  general  development. 

From  the  discovery  of  the  rich  auriferous  deposits  in  the 
bed  of  Fraser  river,  which  sounded  the  death  knell  of  the  fur 


266  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

monopoly  in  these  parts,  to  the  present  time,  mining  has  been 
the  chief  industry  in  British  Columbia,  though  stock-raising 
and  agriculture  are  gradually  assuming  larger  proportions. 
The  output  of  coal  from  Nanaimo  is  large,  while  the  port  of 
Vancouver,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Fraser,  where  the  Canadian 
Pacific  railway  and  the  Asiatic  line  of  steamers  come  together, 
is  growing  rapidly  into  prominence. 

Thus  we  see  what  wonderful  revelations  of  mineral  wealth 
have  been  made  between  the  Rocky  mountains  and  the  Pacific 
ocean  north  of  Mexico  within  the  last  half  century.  First 
were  the  hundreds  of  tons  of  placer  gold  found  strewed  for 
five  hundred  miles  along  the  Sierra  foothills,  not  to  mention 
other  hundreds  of  tons  locked  up  in  quartz.  Then  there 
came  to  light  the  gold  fields  of  Oregon  and  Washington,  and 
the  rich  deposits  along  Fraser  river,  in  British  Columbia,  and 
in  the  Cariboo  country,  and  on  almost  all  the  little  tributaries 
of  the  upper  Columbia.  After  this  arose  the  Pike  peak  epi- 
sode, when  men  swarmed  and  delved  in  Colorado  with  meagre 
results  for  twenty-five  years  before  they  found  the  famous 
Cripple  creek  deposits,  scarcely  fifteen  miles  away  from  the 
scene  of  their  earlier  efforts.  During  this  time  Central  city,  it 
is  true,  had  given  out  half  a  million  of  gold  annually,  and 
Leadville  the  silver  and  lead  peculiar  to  its  mines,  and  there 
was  some  other  mining  in  southwestern  Colorado,  but  all  this 
was  but  little  compared  with  what  followed. 

Mining  in  Alaska,  and  the  rushes  thither  at  various  times, 
the  difficulties  encountered,  the  sufferings  endured,  altogether 
form  an  episode  unparalleled  in  the  human  race  for  riches. 
The  adventurer  knew  well  enough  in  a  general  way  what  was 
before  him;  he  knew  that  the  time  for  work  was  short,  the 
difficulties  certain,  and  he  had  no  ground  on  which  to  build 
great  expectations,  as  in  California,  Australia,  Colorado,  and 
Montana.  Dim  in  the  distance,  they  were  unknown  quanti- 
ties, hardship  success  or  failure,  and  the  unknown  is  ever  full 
of  fascinations,  and  is  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  progress. 
Few  indeed,  comparatively,  would  adventure  in  any  thing, 
commerce,  mining,  manufactures,  or  even  education  and  a 
profession,  were  the  end  visible  at  the  beginning.  Not  one 
in  a  thousand  who  came  to  California  for  gold  met  with  any 
marked  success;  not  one  in  ten  thousand  who  went  to  the 
Klondike  to  get  rich,  succeeded  in  doing  so. 


MINES  AND  MANUFACTURES  267 

Off  over  the  terrible  White  pass,  where  so  many  met  their 
death  from  cold  and  starvation,  thousands  rushed  madly  for 
the  gold  fields  of  the  Yukon,  as  if  for  all  these  many  centuries 
the  treasure  had  not  lain  there  enshrouded  in  snow  waiting 
the  day  of  this  awakening.  Some  twenty  millions  a  year 
Alaska  and  the  Klondike  country  are  giving  to  the  world, 
while  the  world  gives  to  Alaska  and  the  Klondike  country 
forty  millions  a  year  for  taking  it  out.  Such  is  mining. 

The  great  rivers  of  Siberia,  the  Lena,  Yenisei,  and  Obi.  flow 
into  the  Arctic,  the  occupants  of  the  last  two  having  trade 
with  Archangel  In  these  mountains  and  streams  of  the  far 
northeast  are  many  minerals,  gold  silver  copper  and  lead, 
while  along  the  Amur  are  emeralds,  topaz,  zinc,  arsenic,  an- 
timony, and  plumbago.  The  Nerchinsk  silver  mines  have 
been  worked  since  1700.  In  nothing  is  the  contrast  greater 
between  this  and  other  parts  of  the  world  than  in  the  metals 
found  around  this  ocean.  There  is  gold  in  other  lands,  but 
the  Pacific  is  literally  gold-rimmed.  And  likewise  silver;  the 
veins  are  well-nigh  continuous  from  Patagonia  to  Alaska  and 
round  along  Asia  to  Australia.  So  on  both  sides  of  these 
waters,  and  on  the  islands  thereof  are  copper,  iron,  and  coal. 

Japan  is  full  of  mineral  wealth.  Marco  Polo,  who  never 
was  there,  used  to  say  that  the  palaces  of  the  princes  were 
covered  and  ceiled  with  gold,  which  veracious  report  so  ex- 
cited the  Mongolian  emperor,  Kublai  Kahan,  that  he  made  a 
futile  attempt  to  possess  himself  of  the  country.  From  749 
A  D,  when  gold  was  first  mined  and  melted,  during  the  coun- 
try's long  seclusion,  none  of  the  precious  metals  were  sent 
abroad,  and  so  it  became  rumored  about  the  world  that  Japan 
was  full  of  gold.  It  is  said  that  the  Portuguese  exported 
during  the  period  of  their  sway,  from  1550  to  1639,  nearly 
£60,000,000.  The  Dutch  also  carried  away  large  quantities  of 
metals,  the  gold  and  silver  exported  during  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  being  estimated  at  £103,000,000.  Iron 
and  copper  ores  have  been  worked  in  Japan  since  the  tenth 
century.  The  steel  sword  blades  of  the  Japanese  are  of  ex- 
cellent quality.  Copper  is  employed  largely  in  household  arti- 
cles, and  the  exportation  of  that  metal  has  been  enormous. 
Japan  has  also  lead  quicksilver  and  tin,  and  coal  is  plentiful. 
The  Japanese  government  has  established  an  iron  foundry  in 
Fukuoka  prefecture  with  a  capital  of  about  $10,000,000. 


268  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

In  regard  to  the  mineral  resources  of  China,  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  the  country  has  never  been  prospected  nor  the  dis- 
covered mines  exploited  to  any  considerable  extent.  There  are 
parts  of  the  Chinese  empire  of  whose  mineral  deposits  no  more 
is  known  than  was  known  of  the  wealth  of  California,  Aus- 
tralia, and  South  Africa  a  hundred  years  ago.  Who  shall  say 
what  of  silver  and  gold  and  precious  stones,  of  iron  and  coal 
the  mountains  of  Tibet  and  the  upper  tributaries  of  the  three 
great  rivers  do  not  contain?  We  know  that  the  southwest, 
Kweichau  and  Yunnan,  is  full  of  mineral  wealth,  which  can- 
not be  utilized  until  roads  are  opened.  The  Chinese  empire 
has  not  everywhere  that  dense  mass  of  population  which  per- 
haps the  alleged  four  hundred  millions  lead  us  to  imagine. 
The  region  is  so  immense  that  even  four  hundred  millions  do 
not  fill  it  all,  only  the  seaboard  side  and  along  the  great  rivers 
being  densely  populated,  the  far  away  interior  and  western 
side  being  as  yet  uncleared  in  places  of  its  savages  and  wild 
animals. 

The  coal  fields  of  China  some  say  are  the  most  extensive  in 
the  world.  Iron  the  same.  Gold  and  silver  have  not  thus  far 
put  in  so  conspicuous  an  appearance,  but  there  are  some 
valuable  deposits  in  Manchuria  and  other  bordering  regions. 
In  all  the  zones  of  the  western  highlands  gold  is  found,  and 
in  nearly  all  the  provinces,  notably  in  Manchuria  and  Shan- 
tung, with  placer  deposits  on  Han  river,  and  on  hundreds  of 
other  streams.  The  metals  of  Yunnan  and  Kweichau  are 
lead  zinc  tin  and  iron,  as  well  as  coal  copper  cinnabar  and 
sulphur.  Copper  and  lead  developments  are  conspicuous  in 
south  China,  from  Hupei  to  Hunan  provinces.  Coal  has  been 
used  extensively  from  early  times,  in  the  arts  and  in  the  house- 
hold, by  those  living  near  deposits,  powdered  anthracite  be- 
ing sometimes  mixed  with  earth,  sawdust,  or  dung,  in  the 
proportion  perhaps  of  five  or  seven  to  one.  There  is  abun- 
dance of  coal  in  places,  in  the  north  of  Chihli  and  in  the 
basin  of  Taiyuen-fu,  for  instance;  the  anthracite  collieries 
of  Chaitang  and  Kaipsing  are  extensively  worked  by  European 
methods  with  success.  Pingting-chau  is  another  coalfield, 
and  there  are  remarkable  deposits  of  iron  and  coal  in  the 
Shansi  region,  as  elsewhere  noticed.  Here  alone  is  a  Pennsyl- 
vania of  wealth.  Then  there  are  the  fields  of  Honan,  of  Shan- 
tung, of  Weihien,  and  a  hundred  others,  known  and  un- 
known. 


MINES   AND  MANUFACTURES  269 

Along  the  Yangtse  river  and  in  the  northern  provinces,  are 
extensive  iron  and  coal  fields.  In  Hunan  province  alone  there 
are  21,000  square  miles  of  coal,  besides  extensive  forests  of 
good  timber.  The  iron  mines  worked  near  Hankau  are  not 
of  the  best  deposits  in  China.  In  the  hills  of  Anhoui  are  iron 
and  lead;  on  the  Thibetan  border  is  gold,  and  the  salt  of 
Kokonor  is  as  plentiful  as  it  is  fine  and  white.  The  mines  of 
the  Chinese  company  at  Tong  Shan  employ  8,000  to  10,000 
men,  and  put  out  1,500  tons  of  coal  a  day.  The  company 
owns  six  steamers  to  carry  coal  to  various  ports;  overseers  re- 
ceive $20  to  $60,  Mexican,  a  month,  and  European  or  Ameri- 
can superintendents  from  $100  to  $300  a  month,  gold.  This 
company  operates  a  silver  mine  in  Mongolia,  the  machinery 
for  which  was  supplied  from  Chicago.  An  example  of  Chinese 
prejudice  and  stupidity  is  found  in  the  chronic  opposition  of 
the  authorities  to  the  development  of  underground  wealth.  At 
Ichang,  1,000  miles  up  the  Yangtse  river,  are  large  coal  de- 
posits, and  yet  the  steamboats  which  go  there  are  obliged  to 
use  coal  imported  from  Japan. 

Importation  of  foreign  salt  is  prohibited,  the  industry  in 
China  being  a  government  monopoly,  from  which  is  received 
14,000,000  taels  on  a  basis  of  34,000,000,000  pounds  con- 
.  sumption.  Holes  are  bored  in  the  ground  for  salt.  The  chief 
salt-works  are  in  Lutswun;  in  the  valleys  of  Hinchau,  Tai- 
yuen-fu,  Pingyang-fu,  and  Sian-fu;  price  here  from  seven  to 
20  cash  a  cattie  for  a  brown  and  bitter  article  of  very  inferior 
quality.  A  triangle  of  1,500  square  miles,  with  Tzelintsing 
for  the  apex,  and  the  Min  river  from  Chingting-fu  to  Sui-fu 
for  a  base,  will  contain  1,200  or  more  salt  wells,  with  an  average 
diameter  of  six  inches,  and  a  depth  of  from  500  to  6,000  feet. 
While  our  ancestors  were  eating  raw  meat  without  salt,  these 
ingenious  barbarians  were  boring  for  it  through  solid  rock,  as 
some  of  the  wells  of  the  dynasty  of  Han,  the  wall-builder,  at- 
test. In  the  Wonsan  district  of  the  Peng  Yang  province  of 
Korea  are  rich  gold  mines  worked  by  Americans.  Of  the 
precious  metals  Korea  yields  about  $3,000,000  annually; 
there  is  excellent  undeveloped  coal,  with  abundance  of  iron 
and  some  copper.  Gold-bearing  quartz  is  worked  by  an  Ameri- 
can company  in  the  province  of  Phyongan,  where  a  conces- 
sion was  obtained  and  machinery  introduced.  Korea  export- 
ed gold  in  1896  to  the  value  of  $1,390,412. 


270  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

Formosa  is  composed  geologically  of  sandstone,  slate,  gray- 
stone,  shale,  gneiss,  limestone,  and  granite.  Coal  is  scattered 
over  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  island;  petroleum  and  natural 
gas  are  found  in  places.  Though  rock  salt  is  plentiful  on  the 
land,  the  natives  prefer  to  get  their  salt  from  sea  water.  The 
method  is  peculiarly  their  own.  Sea  water  is  poured  upon 
the  hot  sand  until  a  crust  is  formed^which  is  boiled  in  sea  water 
until  sufficient  salt  is  obtained.  Sulphur  is  plentiful,  and 
there  are  indications  of  iron.  Chinese  miners  from  California 
found  gold  on  the  Kelung  river  in  1890  while  digging  for  the 
construction  of  a  railway  bridge. 

In  the  province  of  Shantung  are  many  diamonds,  found 
here  and  there  scattered  along  the  low  sandy  ridges,  or  among 
the  stones  of  the  foothills.  They  lie  as  when  washed  out  by 
the  rains;  the  natives  say  they  cannot  find  them  by  digging. 
Some  of  them  are  small,  of  tea  color,  and  of  little  value,  but 
are  in  demand  for  drill  points;  some  are  as  large  as  a  hazel- 
nut,  and  of  fine  quality.  "  The  mineral  resources  of  this 
province  are  something  wonderful  "  says  the  consul  at  Chifu. 
"  The  Germans  know  what  they  are  about.  Twenty-five  li, 
about  8  miles,  southwest  of  this  city  are  beds  of  good  soft 
coal,  which  the  natives  mine.  They  make  a  good  article  of 
coke,  which  we  use  in  our  stoves.  It  cost  5£  cash  per  cattie, 
that  is,  about  60  cents  Mexican  per  100  catties,  26  cents  per 
ISSVa  pounds.  In  the  same  region  iron  abounds.  Forty-five 
li,  18  miles,  west  of  the  city  is  a  small  hill  composed  of  what 
seems  to  be  phenomenally  pure  red  oxide  of  iron.  For  that 
matter,  the  south  extremity  of  this  city  rests  upon  a  hillock 
from  which  good  ore  crops  out.  Coarse  native  pottery  is  made 
near  the  coal  mines  above  referred  to.  Far  to  the  north  of 
the  city,  in  the  mountains  of  I  Sui  and  Ming  Yin  are  deposits 
of  gold,  silver,  and  lead  of  unknown  value.  A  native  friend 
of  ours  a  few  years  ago  organized  a  company  and  opened  a 
silver  mine  in  Meng  Yin.  They  produced,  with  very  crude 
methods,  excellent  silver  in  paying  quantities,  but  the  usual 
thing  happened,  the  jealous  neighbors  objected,  and  the  of- 
ficials stopped  the  work.  I  have  just  heard  of  a  placer  mine 
recently  opened  on  the  west  bank  of  the  I  Sui,  about  160  li, 
nearly  65  miles,  north  of  this  city.  My  informant  visited  it  in 
person.  It  was  worked  at  night  and  several  thousand  cash 
worth  of  gold  was  taken  out  of  every  bucket  full  of  sand." 


MINES   AND   MANUFACTURES  271 

An  imperial  edict,  issued  on  the  2nd  of  August  1898,  creat- 
ing a  bureau  of  control  for  railways  and  mines  reads  as 
follows:  "  Railways  and  mines  are  now-a-days  the  most  impor- 
tant in  this  empire.  We  have  already  had  the  Tientsin- 
Shanhaikuan  and  the  Tientsin-Peking  railways  built  and  in 
regular  working  order  for  some  time  past,  while  steps  are  now 
being  taken  for  raising  funds  to  build  the  Shanhaikuan  ex- 
tension to  the  Taling  river,  Niuchwang  and  vicinity.  As  for 
the  Canton-Hankau  and  Hankau-Peking  lines,  full  control 
had  been  granted  the  Head  Commercial  company  to  find  ways 
and  means  for  the  construction  of  these  railways,  and  matters 
appear  to  be  now  taking  definite  shape  in  this  connection. 
Then  as  to  mines,  we  have  the  Kaiping  colliery  and  the  Miho 
— Amur — gold  mines  as  the  most  successful,  so  far,  among 
the  many  mining  enterprises  embarked  upon,  and  we  have 
already  further  commanded  those  in  control  to  seize  every 
opportunity  to  extend  the  works  of  the  two  mines  above  noted. 
We  are,  however,  apprehensive,  in  view  of  the  number  of 
provinces  in  the  empire  and  the  various  conditions  of  men 
who  will  attempt  to  open  mines  of  all  sorts  in  the  future, 
that  a  diversity  of  methods  and  ensuing  confusion  will  be  the 
result,  which  would,  of  course,  be  detrimental  to  the  principal 
object  we  have,  of  getting  the  fullest  advantages  obtainable 
out  of  each  and  every  undertaking  in  this  direction.  It  is 
therefore  highly  important  that  there  should  be  a  central 
bureau  to  direct,  under  a  single  system,  the  working  and  ex- 
ploitation of  mines  and  railways  in  the  empire,  and  we  hereby 
command  that  a  bureau  of  control  for  railways  and  mines  be 
established  in  Peking,  to  the  chief  commissionerships  of  which 
we  now  specially  appoint  two  ministers  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen, 
namely,  Wang  Wenahao  and  Chang  Yin-huan.  The  said 
chief  commissioners  shall  from  henceforth  have  special  con- 
trol over  the  opening  of  mines  and  construction  of  railways 
throughout  the  empire,  and  companies  formed  for  the  above 
purposes  will  in  future  be  required  to  apply  to  the  said  com- 
missioners for  permission  and  guidance  in  their  operations." 
In  the  province  of  Shanli  a  British  syndicate  secured  a  con- 
cession which  is  to  result  in  the  unlimited  production  of  iron 
and  steel. 

Minerals  impregnate  the  surface  earth  of  almost  the  entire 
Philippine  archipelago.  The  elevated  auriferous  gravels  of 


212  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

Mindanao  are  suitable  for  hydraulic  washing,  and  in  the 
streams  is  placer  mining.  In  the  province  of  Abra,  on  Luzon, 
there  are  also  placer  and  hydraulic  mines.  Lapanto  has  gold 
quartz  veins  as  well  as  auriferous  gravels,  while  near  at  hand 
are  copper  mines.  The  streams  of  Benguet,  Nueva  Ecija, 
and  Camarines  Nore  carry  gold.  In  various  parts  of  the  isl- 
ands are  deposits  of  iron  so  pure  that  separation  is  made  in 
the  roasting. 

In  Australia,  Victoria  began  to  be  settled  in  1834,  the  coun- 
try giving  itself  up  to  wool-growing.  But  a  change  quickly 
came  when  gold  was  found  at  Buninyong,  Mount  Alexander, 
and  Ballarat,  the  yellow  metal  thereafter  becoming  king.  At 
Ballarat  one  man  gathered  31  pounds  in  a  day,  a  nugget  weigh- 
ing 106  pounds  was  found  at  Bathurst;  Victoria  yielded  48 
tons  of  gold  in  one  year.  The  total  product  of  1852,  1853, 
and  1854  in  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria  was  $231,000,000. 
The  gold  mines  of  Coolgardie  are  valued  at  $80,000,000. 
Among  the  famous  Australian  nuggets  were  the  "  Welcome 
Stranger  ",  found  in  Victoria  in  1869,  weighing  3,286  ounces, 
and  valued  at  £9,534;  the  "  Welcome  ",  of  Ballarat,  2,217 
ounces,  £9,325;  the  "Blanche  Barkly  ",  1,743  ounces,  £6,905, 
and  another  gold  lump  of  Ballarat  weighing  1,619  ounces; 
from  which  huge  specimens  the  precious  stuff  scales  down- 
ward in  size  to  particles  like  fine-ground  maize. 

All  the  ordinary  minerals  abound  in  Chili,  auriferous  veins, 
rich  silver  mines,  copper,  iron,  zinc,  and  gypsum.  Coal  de- 
posits extend  along  the  coast  for  100  miles,  or  more,  sloping 
down  to  the  edge  of  the  ocean,  and  in  places  under  the  ocean. 
At  Coronel  the  mines  are  profitably  worked  for  quite  a  dis- 
tance under  the  sea.  The  great  Cousino  coal  mines,  whose 
output  represents  millions  of  dollars,  are  at  Lota,  25  miles 
from  Concepcion.  Important  developments  have  been  made 
at  the  coal  mines  on  Aranco  bay  and  Puchoco.  Seams  of 
coal  five  feet  thick  begin  at  the  shore  and  run  down  under 
the  sea,  in  places  for  miles.  Over  the  seams  are  water  tight 
layers  of  slate  and  shale,  so  that  the  tunnels  are  quite  dry. 
The  best  appliances  are  now  in  use  in  working  these  mines, 
which  are  lighted  by  electricity,  electric  trolley  trains  bring- 
ing forth  the  coal  from  under  the  sea.  The  output  of  the 
Lota  mines  in  1898  was  1,000  tons  a  day,  50  men  being  em- 
ployed at  a  wage  of  90  cents  or  $1  a  day  Chilian  money,  being 


MINES   AND   MANUFACTURES  273 

equivalent  to  30  or  35  cents  American  money, — about  one- 
tenth  of  the  wage  received  by  workers  in  the  coal  and  copper 
mines  in  the  United  States.  The  town  of  Lota  was  established 
and  built  up  by  Cousino,  who  owned  coal  copper  and  silver 
mines,  besides  smelters  and  landed  estates.  He  employed 
3,000  men  at  one  time,  all  transportation  being  done  in  his 
own  steamers.  Jutting  out  over  the  coal-bed  is  a  high  penin- 
sula, where  is  the  park  and  palace  of  Lota,  and  where  Cousino 
left  his  widow  with  an  income  of  $1,000,000  a  year.  Alas! 
that  she  too  must  die. 

The  wealth  of  Peru!  The  term  is  a  household  word,  sig- 
nificant not  of  broad  acres  and  fat  cattle,  but  of  metal,  yellow 
metal  of  the  kind  that  shone  on  Cuzco's  temple  of  the  Sun 
when  it  was  stripped  for  Atahualpa's  ransom.  Yellow  metal, 
and  white;  the  latter  being  what  we  fancy  in  speaking  of 
Potosi  and  the  riven  sides  of  the  Cordillera. 

Ecuador  has  an  abundance  of  all  the  precious  and  base 
metals,  and  is  a  good  grazing  and  agricultural  country.  Con- 
spicuous among  the  rivers  flowing  into  the  Pacific  are  the 
Esmeralda  and  Guayaquil,  the  chief  seaports  being  Guayaquil, 
Manta,  and  Esmeralda.  Quito,  the  capital,  stands  above  the 
level  of  the  ocean  9,453  feet,  in  a  temperature  of  56°  to  62°. 
"Vegetable  life  and  minerals  abound. 

In  Colombia,  along  the  Darien  shore  and  across  to  Panama, 
is  where  the  North  American  gold  gatherings  began,  when 
Rodrigo  de  Bastidas  traded  his  trinkets  there,  and  Columbus 
came,  and  Balboa;  these  and  others,  here  and  in  Costa  Rica 
and  Guatemala.  A  rich  mine  of  manganese  at  Viento  Frio, 
thirty  miles  east  of  Colon,  is  owned  and  worked  by  Americans. 

The  entire  republic  of  Mexico  is  surfaced  with  silver  and 
gold.  The  uplands  are  richest  in  these  deposits,  but  all  along 
the  Pacific  terraces,  from  Sonora  to  Oaxaca,  one  metal  alter- 
nates with  the  other  in  forming  a  chain  of  valuable  mines. 
In  the  northern  part  of  the  republic,  the  deposits  seem  rather 
to  follow  the  line  of  the  mother  ranges  on  either  sido  of  the 
plateau,  but  in  the  central  part  the  mines  are  massed  without 
order  in  the  states  surrounding  the  Anahuac  valley,  as  Hidal- 
go, Queretaro,  and  Morelia.  There  is  a  metalliferous  belt  in 
Guanajuato  which  has  yielded  for  centuries,  and  is  still  yield- 
ing largely,  as  the  Valenciana,  whose  output  from  1766  to  1826 
was  $226,000,000.  Since  the  coming  of  the  Spaniards,  Guana- 


2U  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

juato  has  given  to  the  world  not  less  than  $1,000,000,000, 
and  Zacatecas  almost  as  much,  while  the  yield  of  Hidalgo  has 
been  if  any  thing  still  greater.  Yet  great  as  has  been  the 
product  of  the  mines  of  Mexico,  probably  there  is  no  safer 
field  for  mining  enterprise  at  the  present  time  than  this. 
Nor  are  the  precious  metals  alone  abundant;  in  Durango  and 
elsewhere  are  mountains  of  iron,  in  Queretaro  lead,  in  Guer- 
rero and  Lower  California  copper,  and  in  various  sections  are 
found  zinc,  tin,  bismuth,  and  quicksilver.  Then  there  are 
fields  of  coal,  as  in  Puebla  and  Tlaxcala;  and  mountains  of 
sulphur,  like  the  famed  volcano  Popocatepetl,  whose  crater 
one  of  the  captains  of  Cortes  descended  for  sulphur  to  make 
gunpowder  for  use  in  the  capture  of  Mexico.  This  famous 
fiery  mountain  was  lately  sold  to  an  English  syndicate  for 
$250,000.  In  Sonora  are  beds  of  graphite,  and  in  Vera  Cruz 
and  Tabasco  asphaltum  and  petroleum.  All  this,  and  fine 
marbles,  onyx,  and  precious  stones  every  where  in  endless  pro- 
fusion. In  Lower  California,  fifty  miles  south  of  Ensenada,  is 
the  Tepustete  iron  mine,  whose  proprietors  secured  facilities 
for  shipping  the  ore  to  Japan,  where  there  is  a  demand  for  it, 
and  also  to  the  new  smelter  at  Port  Angeles,  on  Puget  sound. 
Near  the  Tepustete  mine  are  valuable  graphite  and  mineral 
paint  deposits. 

I  have  but  brief  space  left  in  which  to  speak  of  manufact- 
ures; yet  enough,  for  the  New  Pacific  is  not  as  yet  bordered 
by  a  superfluity  of  factories,  or  its  waters  disturbed  by  the 
din  of  industrial  machinery,  howsoever  in  the  future  it  may 
be. 

While  Great  Britain  has  the  lead  in  shipping,  the  manu- 
factures of  the  United  States  have  so  increased  as  to  be  now 
second  to  none;  and  so  long  as  the  coal  supply  for  the  Pacific 
is  in  foreign  hands,  that  prime  necessity  for  industrial  de- 
velopment should  be  admitted  free  of  duty.  England  and 
her  colonies  in  their  coal  resources  dominate  to  a  far  too  great 
extent  the  industrial  development  in  the  Pacific. 

Formerly  we  drew  largely,  even  for  our  own  consumption, 
on  England  and  France;  now  there  are  but  few  articles  in 
the  manufacture  of  which  we  cannot  compete  successfully 
with  any  other  nation;  and  great  as  has  been  the  importance 
of  our  export  trade  in  the  past,  it  will  assume  greater  im- 
portance as  the  years  pass  by;  for  if  we  cannot  find  markets 


MINES   AND   MANUFACTURES  275 

our  manufactures  will  decline,  capital  seek  other  channels, 
and  laborers  be  thrown  out  of  employment.  Until  recently 
iron  rails  were  shipped  to  America  from  England;  now  Pitts- 
burg  iron  is  placed  in  Calcutta  at  a  rate  less  than  Great  Britain 
can  compete  with.  And  fortunately  for  us  foreign  markets 
can  be  successfully  cultivated  to  almost  any  extent.  Cali- 
fornia, where  the  best  facilities  are  afforded  for  the  manu- 
facture of  a  great  variety  of  articles,  and  where  manufactures 
have  only  begun  to  develop  as  compared  with  their  capabili- 
ties, might  furnish  many  articles  not  now  on  her  export  list 
to  Central  and  South  America,  to  Australia,  British  America, 
and  the  coast  of  Asia,  to  say  nothing  of  the  rest  of  the  world. 
It  is  true  that  an  Englishman  will  consume  many  times  more 
of  our  manufactured  goods  than  a  Malay  or  a  Mongol;  but 
that  United  States  exports  to  the  5,000,000  of  Canada  should 
be  more  than  to  the  350,000,000  of  China  seems  somewhat  out 
of  proportion,  particularly  if  the  comparison  is  limited  in 
proportion  to  the  American  states  of  the  Pacific. 

The  cotton  current  from  New  Orleans  to  Liverpool  for  the 
thousand  mills  of  Manchester  and  Lancashire  and  Bolton  and 
Oldham,  has  been  turned  toward  California  and  China,  where 
men  and  machinery  can  do  what  can  be  done  elsewhere.  The 
cotton  manufactures  of  England,  which  in  1800  were  £200,000 
in  value,  had  reached  £76,000,000  in  1860,  when  the  civil  war 
caused  the  closing  of  English  mills  by  the  score.  In  some 
such  ratio  will  be  the  increase  of  industries  round  the  Pacific 
during  the  coming  century. 

The  cotton  belt  of  the  United  States  is  changing  from  east 
to  west.  Originally  Virginia,  Georgia,  and  the  Carolinas  were 
the  cotton-raising  centre;  then  the  area  was  extended  to  the 
Mississippi;  now  three-fourths  of  the  crop  is  grown  west  of 
that  river.  The  south  Atlantic  states  have  mills  enough  to 
spin  all  or  nearly  all  the  cotton  they  raise,  leaving  little  for 
the  New  England  mills,  or  for  export.  As  the  cotton-raising 
capacity  of  Texas,  Kansas,  and  Arkansas  fills  up,  and  the  in- 
dustry gradually  extends  westward,  the  cotton-raising  centre 
of  the  United  States  will  be  nearer  the  Pacific  than  the  At- 
lantic ocean.  In  its  westward  march  the  plant  improves;  the 
harvesting  is  facilitated  by  the  rainless  autumn,  and  insects 
are  less  troublesome. 

Thus  the  cotton-growing  area  of  the  United  States,  esti- 


276  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

mated  now  at  20,000,000  acres,  will  become  still  further  en- 
larged, and  exercise  a  powerful  influence  over  the  destinies  of 
the  Pacific  coast.  Fears  might  be  entertained  that  the  low 
prices  incident  to  large  production  might  check  the  cotton- 
growing  were  it  not  for  the  new  markets  opening  in  Asia. 
China  and  Japan  alone  can  use  all  the  cotton  we  can  raise,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  now  naked  hordes  of  Africa  and  the  isles 
of  the  Orient,  who  with  progress  will  be  compelled  to  put  on 
clothes.  The  Far  East  has  hardly  yet  begun  the  use  of  cotton. 
One-half  of  the  human  race  live  in  climates  where  the  little 
protection  needed  for  the  body  is  best  furnished  by  cotton 
cloth,  and  in  order  to  place  the  commodity  within  reach  of 
all  the  price  must  be  low. 

This  necessity  is  being  met;  the  world's  cotton  production 
has  doubled  during  the  last  ten  years,  and  trebled  within 
twenty-five  years.  Egypt,  India,  and  China  can  raise  cotton, 
and  also  manufacture  it;  but  the  southern  planter  of  the 
United  States,  with  ever  increasing  available  lands  and  ever 
increasing  cheap  negro  labor,  with  his  capital,  his  experience, 
his  home  institutions  and  surroundings,  will  always  be  able 
to  compete  successfully  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  With 
these  facts  before  us,  it  is  clearly  evident  that  the  most  suit- 
able place  for  the  erection  of  new  mills  is  the  coast  of  southern 
California,  practically  near  at  once  to  the  base  of  supply  and 
to  the  market.  It  is  comparatively  a  short  haul  and  down 
grade,  the  shortest  and  easiest  way  from  the  great  cotton  grow- 
ing centre  to  the  Pacific,  where  the  healthiest  climate  and 
best  facilities  are  at  hand  for  the  manufacture  and  steamers 
ready  to  take  the  product  at  small  expense  to  every  shore  of 
the  greatest  of  oceans. 

The  time  has  passed  by  when  our  cotton  must  go  to  Eng- 
land for  manufacture,  to  be  brought  back  by  us  as  cloth.  The 
time  is  rapidly  passing  by  when  Texas  cotton  will  be  sent  to 
New  England,  or  even  to  North  Carolina,  for  manufacture 
into  cloth  for  the  markets  of  the  Far  East.  With  four  cents 
to  the  grower,  as  some  predict  will  be  the  price  of  cotton  within 
the  next  decade,  the  future  mills  of  the  California  coast  can 
be  supplied  at  five  cents,  and  limitless  markets  found  at  a 
trifling  cost  by  ocean  transportation.  Every  advantage  is  thus 
offered  for  successful  competition  with  the  other  manufac- 
tories of  America,  and  with  any  which  may  be  established  in 
Asia. 


MINES   AND   MANUFACTURES  277 

The  growing  and  manufacture  of  cotton  is  as  yet  one  of 
the  world's  primitive  industries.  New  methods  of  farming 
will  be  introduced  and  new  machinery  invented;  and  if  Ameri- 
cans, with  their  usual  energy  and  intelligence,  continue  to  im- 
prove in  manufactures  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  they  will 
control  the  cotton  industry  of  the  world.  Through  selection 
and  adaptation  to  soils  superior  plants  will  be  engendered, 
and  economic  cultivation  will  be  developed  on  large  and  sys- 
tematically organized  plantations;  so  that,  as  long  as  the  new 
land  lasts — which  will  be  for  a  long  time  yet — more  cotton 
to  the  acre  and  at  less  cost  will  be  produced  than  has  been  the 
case  heretofore,  that  is  to  say  until  a  permanent  four-cent,  or 
perhaps  three-cent  basis  is  reached.  However  great  the  value 
of  the  Nicaragua  canal  to  the  nations  on  the  Atlantic,  to  those 
on  the  Pacific  it  will  be  much  greater,  provided  the  men  of  the 
Pacific  will  make  it  so;  and  of  all  others  the  southern  states 
of  both  the  eastern  and  western  seaboards  will  be  the  most 
benefited.  Texas  cotton  can  then  be  landed  from  vessels  at 
the  future  southern  California  mills  at  a  trifling  cost  without 
the  aid  of  any  railway,  and  thus  the  southern  states  will  par- 
ticipate in  the  advancement  of  the  Pacific. 

Favorable  conditions  for  extensive  manufacturing  exist  no- 
where in  the  world  as  on  the  several  Pacific  seaboards.  Near 
the  coast  on  every  side  are  all  the  raw  materials  found  any 
where  else  in  the  world,  metals  fibres  and  fuel,  animals  and 
plants  and  all  that  they  can  give,  with  water,  wind,  steam, 
electricity,  and  every  other  power,  and  with  good  climates 
and  the  best  and  cheapest  of  skilled  labor.  Let  the  mind  and 
materials  be  brought  together  under  the  proper  conditions  and 
management,  and  great  will  be  the  results. 

Of  the  Chinese  in  India,  Lord  Elgin  says:  "  That  the  most 
active,  industrious,  and  enterprising  race  in  the  eastern  world 
should  be  regarded  as  a  source  of  weakness  rather  than  of 
strength  to  a  community,  implies  prima  facie  a  certain  degree 
of  mismanagement.  The  Chinese  who  have  been  attracted  to 
Singapore  by  its  freedom  from  commercial  restrictions  and 
advantages  of  position,  have  contributed  to  make  it  what  it  is, 
the  most  prosperous  settlement  in  the  East.  Without  Chinese 
labor  neither  the  Malay  nor  Philippine  archipelago,  nor  Siam, 
nor  Cochin  China  would  have  sugar  or  tin  for  their  exporta- 
tion." 


278  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

When  the  free  and  intelligent  peoples  of  these  Pacific  sea- 
boards shall  have  emancipated  themselves  from  their  indus- 
trial superstitions;  when  the  barriers  of  race  prejudice  shall 
be  removed  and  unrestricted  intercourse  established;  when 
new  fields  of  enterprise  shall  have  been  opened  by  new  and 
enlarged  ideas  and  measures;  when  skilled  industry  and  raw 
material  can  be  brought  together  under  favorable  conditions 
of  capital  and  competent  management;  when  in  every  land  all 
legislations  impeding  or  restricting  commerce  shall  be  laid 
aside;  when  an  apathetic  indifference  to  the  welfare  and 
progress  of  neighboring  communities  interdependent  on  each 
other  shall  have  been  overcome,  and  all  of  our  grand  poten- 
tialities have  the  full  exercises  of  their  powers,  we  shall  then 
see  round  these  Pacific  waters  a  transformation  such  as  the 
mind  of  man  has  never  dreamed  of. 

Economists  partially  demonstrate  that  well-paid  labor  is  the 
more  profitable  for  manufacturers,  and  will  successfully  com- 
pete with  cheap  labor  on  its  own  ground.  The  control  of  the 
markets  of  the  world  in  iron  and  other  articles  has  passed, 
and  is  passing,  from  England  and  other  low-wage  countries 
to  the  United  States,  a  high-wage  country.  This  can  be  ac- 
counted for  only  on  the  ground  of  superiority  of  skill  and 
application,  and  improvements  in  the  economy  of  production 
and  manufacture.  There  are  some  articles,  however,  which 
cannot  be  rightly  placed  in  this  category,  where  for  genera- 
tions cheap  labor  has  been  perfecting  itself  in  the  production 
of  a  superior  article.  This  is  shown  in  regard  to  certain 
Asiatic  goods,  where  our  government  for  example  found  it 
necessary  to  impose  a  duty  of  75  per  cent  on  Habutai  silk, 
which  costs  from  eighteen  to  thirty  cents  per  square  yard,  and 
from  250  to  750  per  cent  on  Chinese  pongee  silks. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  wages,  the  superiority  of  Americans 
in  certain  lines  of  manufactures,  but  in  American  mind  and 
American  methods.  Gumption,  the  Yankee  farmer  would 
call  it,  who  thrives  on  his  hundred  acres  while  paying  his  help 
twice  as  much  as  his  neighbor  who  fails.  It  is  genius  of  suc- 
cess as  against  the  genius  of  failure.  Successful  Americans, 
like  poets,  are  born,  not  made;  or  at  least  they  are  first  and 
the  best  part  of  them  born,  while  the  other  part  may  be  de- 
veloped. Next  after  methods  of  our  own  is  that  over-ruling 
spirit  of  all  success,  work.  As  an  Englishman  visiting  the 


MINES   AND  MANUFACTURES 


279 


Baldwin  locomotive  works  in  Philadelphia  said:  "  It  seems 
that  everyone  in  America  works  harder  than  in  England,  from 
the  president  of  a  large  firm  down  to  the  office  and  tool  boys. 
It  is  work,  work,  work,  and  not  a  mere  attempt  to  put  in  eight 
or  ten  hours  a  day."  In  reply  to  which  he  was  told:  "  Amer- 
ican workmen  are  paid  higher  wages  than  any  in  the  world, 
but  their  labor  is  cheaper  in  the  end.  For  instance,  here  in 
this  country,  if  we  can  find  a  way  or  devise  a  machine  by  which 
one  man  can  do  the  work  it  had  required  two  men  to  do,  we 
put  one  man  to  do  the  work,  and  the  other  man  we  place  some- 
where else.  The  American  is  satisfied  with  this  arrangement, 
for  he  sees  advantage  ahead  of  him  if  he  applies  himself  with 
industry  to  his  work.  It  is  as  our  English  friend  remarked, 
'  Everyone  works  like  their  very  lives  depended  on  how  much 
they  accomplished.'  The  Englishman  is  different.  He  will 
say,  '  I  am  doing  two  men's  work,'  and  then,  instead  of  doing 
it  like  the  American  and  earning  his  spurs,  he  merely  puts  in 
the  allotted  number  of  hours.  The  free  and  general  use  of 
machinery  is  another  reason  why  America  is  ahead  of  the 
world.  American  workmen  use  much  more  machinery  than 
other  workmen  of  the  world,  and  the  machines  in  themselves 
are  far  superior  to  foreign  makes:  Machine  work  is  always 
much  cheaper,  more  trustworthy  and  accurate  than  hand- 
work." The  following  average  rate 'of  weekly  wages  paid  by 
competing  countries  was  compiled  by  the  Massachusetts  bu- 
reau of  labor. 


OCCUPATIOHl, 

p 

CM 

1 

«£ 
If 

II 

Russia. 

1 

1 

K 
1 

-  /. 

Blast-furnace,  men  
Machine-making  men  

$5.96 
7.80 

$4.28 
5.00 

$4.46 

$3'.  38 

!!* 

811.63 

5.57 

4.28 

bS^ 

Cotton-manufacture,  men  
Cotton-manufacture,  women.  .  . 
Wool  and  worsted,  men  
Wool  and  worsted  women  ..... 

6.14 
8.71 
5.64 
3.22 

4.03 
2.38 



1.55 
1.75 
1.90 

cents  a  di 
bor.'carp 
SO  cents 

o!sb 

8.39 
5.90 
8.39 
6.05 

Boot  and  shoe  factories,  men.  .  . 
Root  and  shoe  factories  women 

5.89 
8.04 

4.65 

3.64 

2.92 

|Ja 



12,70 
7.88 

Carpet-making,  men  
Carpet-making   women  

6.46 
2.69 

4.28 
2.38 

......  , 

.»v... 

111 

....;. 

9.10 
6.87 

Silk-manufacture,  men  
Silk-manufacture,  women  

5.40 
2.45 

. 

2-.07 
...... 

Unskilled 
meals, 
and  mas 

1.05 
(0.24 
1    to 
(  01.05 

10.62 
6.57 

10 


280  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

If  the  Asiatic  artisan  be  not  permitted  to  enter  the  fields 
of  skilled  labor  beside  the  white  man,  he  will  follow  his  voca- 
tion at  home  and  send  the  product  abroad.  This  he  is  already 
doing  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  cloth,  furniture,  and  other 
articles  in  the  production  of  which  he  proves  an  adept,  and 
will  in  due  time  compete  successfully  with  all  the  world,  and 
supply  a  great  portion  of  it  with  his  handiwork.  An  import 
duty  may  be  placed  on  these  articles  which  will  afford  the 
white  laborer  some  protection,  but  no  tariff  will  ever  be  able 
to  make  up  for  all  the  advantages  of  cheap  material,  cheap 
labor,  and  cheap  living  in  China  and  Japan.  Thus  our  ar- 
tisans by  insisting  on  less  work,  will  have  less  work  to  do. 
The  Asiatic  will  learn,  and  will  labor,  if  not  abroad  then  at 
home.  England  once  took  our  cotton  and  returned  it  to  us, 
greatly  increased  in  price,  in  cloth.  China  will  do  the  same, 
and  will  also  supply  Europe  and  her  colonies.  The  funda- 
mental laws  of  trade  can  no  more  be  subverted  than  the  laws 
of  gravitation.  And  in  this  way  the  nations  of  the  Pacific 
will  be  brought  together  in  a  better  relationship  than  that  of 
a  union  of  labor  or  race  amalgamation. 

On  the  western  coast  of  the  United  States,  wages  are  no 
higher  than  on  the  eastern,  except  in  regards  to  household 
service,  while  the  cost  of  living  is  less,  and  the  climate  better 
adapted  to  continuous  labor.  With  manufactures  well  estab- 
lished, skilled  artisans  can  live  comfortably  and  lay  up  money 
on  a  wage  at  which  a  family  could  scarcely  live  at  the  east  or 
in  Europe.  Silk-spinners  and  male  weavers  receive  in  Yoko- 
hama seventeen  cents  a  day,  while  female  weavers  are  paid 
two  yens  a  month,  or  about  four  cents  a  day. 

In  the  progress  of  manufactures  in  Oregon  the  making  of 
lumber  came  first,  then  ship-building,  flour  milling,  salmon 
canning,  and  finally  woollen  mills,  iron  founding,  and  the 
making  of  lime,  paper,  flax  and  linen  twines,  and  other  like 
articles.  Portland  and  San  Diego,  as  well  as  the  cities  of  the 
Sound  and  San  Francisco,  aspire  to  ship-building,  with  dry- 
dock  and  all  the  facilities  for  naval  construction  work.  For 
lumber-mills  and  ship-building  Puget  sound  affords  the  best 
facilities.  Here,  likewise,  are  coal  deposits,  and  a  long  line 
of  manufactures  coming  forward,  such  as  foundries,  machine- 
shops,  smelters,  tanneries,  and  fish-canneries.  During  1898 
Washington  built  147  vessels,  aggregating  a  tonnage  of  28,- 
774  tons.  , 


MINES   AND  MANUFACTURES  281 

The  fisheries  of  British  Columbia  led  to  the  first  industrial 
movement  after  fur-gathering,  grazing,  and  a  little  agricult- 
ure. Salmon  were  at  first  dried,  smoked,  salted,  and  put  in 
barrels;  later  they  were  canned  fresh.  Then  came  sawmills, 
flour  mills,  and  tanneries;  breweries  and  boatbuilding;  and 
factories  for  making  boots  and  shoes,  furniture,  pianos,  doors, 
soaps,  matches,  and  cigars.  Victoria  manufactures  cigars, 
some  being  brought  from  eastern  Canada;  the  supply  im- 
ported from  the  United  States  is  not  large,  owing  in  some 
degree  to  excessive  customs  duty;  the  excise  duty  on  home 
manufactures  of  tobacco  is  less. 

Pacific  coast  goods,  Asiatic  and  American,  such  of  them  as 
are  suitable  should  have  representation  at  the  Russian  annual 
fair  held  at  Nizhni  Novgorod,  which  during  the  last  decade 
has  assumed  larger  proportions  than  ever  before.  To  develop 
more  rapidly  the  mineral  resources  of  the  Ural  mountains, 
and  in  the  region  traversed  by  the  transsiberian  railway,  Rus- 
sia grants  free  admittance  for  ten  years  to  all  articles  for  use 
in  the  Ural  or  Siberian  mines.  Here  is  a  prospective  market 
for  all  the  mining  machinery  made  in  the  United  States. 
This  of  course  applies  to  that  portion  of  northern  China  which 
Russia  has  so  unceremoniously  taken  possession  of,  Manchuria 
and  the  country  through  which  the  transsiberian  railway  runs 
as  it  deflects  to  Peking,  Tientsin,  and  the  gulf  of  Pechili  on 
the  west,  and  to  Korea  on  the  east,  while  the  direct  line  to 
Talienwan  and  Port  Arthur  will  pass  through  the  rich  mining 
districts  of  Shansi,  and  on  to  .the  Hoang-ho  river.  One  thus 
writes:  "  In  possession  of  a  Chinese  frontier  of  4,000  miles, 
Russia  is  making  the  best  use  of  her  opportunities  to  assimi- 
late to  her  own  people  the  inhabitants  of  all  northern  China. 
In  offering  free  trade  for  machinery  to  be  used  in  the  mining 
industry,  the  tsar  practically  invites  the  great  manufacturing 
states  to  aid  him  in  the  conquest  of  the  populous  east.  The 
development  of  the  mining  interests  of  the  Russian  and  Chi- 
nese empires,  the  building  of  railroads,  and  the  navigation  of 
rivers,  with  the  opening  of  the  tea,  silk,  and  rice  countries 
through  which  they  run,  not  to  speak  of  the  new  line  of  rail- 
way through  Afghanistan  to  the  frontier  of  India,  are  enter- 
prises in  the  execution  of  which  Russia  needs  the  cooperation 
of  the  great  industrial  nations  of  the  world." 

Wages  in  eastern  Siberia,  though  not  yet  reduced  to  fixed 


282  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

rates,  are  higher  than  in  western  Siberia,  and  much  higher 
than  in  China,  and  yet  are  only  about  one-half  of  the  rate 
ruling  in  north-western  America.  At  Vladivostok  mechanics 
receive  one  dollar  a  day,  and  laborers  half  a  dollar.  Consider- 
ing the  climate,  the  cost  of  living,  and  the  absence  of  many  of 
the  essentials  of  progressive  industry,  we  shall  never  expect 
to  see  many  flourishing  manufactories  there.  The  govern- 
ment has  leather  works  at  Tomsk,  where  hides  from  the  west- 
ern steppes  of  Siberia  are  tanned  and  worked  into  merchant- 
able stock. 

San  Francisco  is  a  manufacturing  as  well  as  commercial 
city,  all  the  leading  industries  being  well  represented.  Prom- 
inent among  the  manufactures  of  California  are  iron  and  steel 
works,  agricultural  and  mining  machinery,  ship  and  boat 
building,  flour  and  feed  mills,  leather  and  other  works. 
Throughout  the  interior  are  irrigating  and  electrical  works, 
fruit  curing  and  canning,  oil,  powder,  and  pottery  works,  and 
scores  of  other  active  industries.  Thousands  of  tons  of  beet 
sugar  are  now  made  in  California,  and  beer  for  the  million. 
We  build  some  ships  but  we  should  build  more.  So  long  as 
we  have  at  hand  steel  and  wood,  abundance  of  material  and 
every  facility  for  shipbuilding,  and  $179,000,000  freight 
money  is  paid  on  our  exports,  we  need  not  complain  of  lack 
of  occupation.  The  silk  manufactories  in  the  United  States 
aggregate  in  value  $150,000,000,  the  product  growing  from 
$6,607,771  in  1860  to  about  $150,000,000  in  1898.  On  both 
sides  of  the  Pacific,  in  temperate  and  half-tropical  latitudes, 
the  best  facilities  are  afforded  for  growing  the  worm  and 
weaving  the  silk.  San  Francisco  and  New  York  merchants, 
some  of  them,  have  their  own  plantations  of  tea  in  China,  of 
coffee  in  Central  America,  of  sugar  in  the  Hawaiian  islands, 
of  cocoa  in  Mexico,  and  of  hemp  and  tobacco  in  the  Philip- 
pines. 

In  the  manufacture  of  textile  goods  in  Japan,  spinning- 
wheels  have  given  place  to  mills,  which  are  well  scattered 
throughout  the  empire.  There  is  a  large  silk  factory  at 
Kioto,  and  woollen  factories  at  Osaka  and  Tokio.  The  por- 
celain and  silk  factories  of  Kioto  are  still  carried  on  mostly 
by  hand  labor  with  the  crudest  of  tools.  Silk  weavers  get 
thirty  cents  a  day  wages,  and  boy  helpers  twelve  cents.  Paper 
is  made  from  the  bark  of  the  same  trees  that  supply  leaves 


MINES  AND  MANUFACTURES  283 

for  the  silkworm.  Osaka  and  Hiogo  are  the  manufacturing 
centre  of  Japan.  Raw  cotton  is  imported  largely  and  spun 
into  yarn,  when  it  finds  a  ready  sale  throughout  the  entire 
Asiatic  coast.  Cotton-spinning  and  other  machinery,  also 
white  sugar  and  leather  are  largely  imported.  During  the 
money  stringency  which  fell  on  Japan  in  the  autumn  of  1898, 
large  quantities  of  American  cotton  accumulated  at  Osaka, 
importers  being  unable  to  take  it  up.  Millions  of  dollars 
worth  of  other  goods,  mostly  from  the  United  States,  were  at 
the  same  time  stored  in  Yokohama  and  Kobe,  as  the  mer- 
chants for  whom  they  were  imported  had  not  the  means  of 
paying  for  them.  In  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods,  the 
Asiatics  first  feel  their  way  by  importing  the  yarn  and  weaving 
it  into  cloth  on  their  own  looms.  Then,  obtaining  machinery, 
they  finally  perform  the  entire  work.  Thus  far,  however, 
they  have  been  able  to  compete  with  American  manufactures 
only  in  the  coarser  grades.  Japan  now  works  up  27,000,000 
pounds  of  raw  cotton,  and  turns  out  24,000,000  pounds  of 
yarn  per  annum.  The  manufacture  of  cotton  into  yarn  and 
cloth  is  a  large  and  growing  industry  in  Japan,  and  is  also 
rapidly  coming  forward  in  China.  Carpets  and  rugs  are  made 
at  Sakai,  a  suburb  of  Osaka. 

The  extensive  manufacture  of  clocks  in  every  part  of  Japan, 
has  stopped  the  importation  of  all  except  the  cheapest  grades. 
In  Nagoya  are  seven  factories,  which  with  the  factories  of 
Kioto,  Osaka,  and  Tokio,  produce  30,000  clocks  a  month. 
The  manufacture  of  matches,  begun  twenty  years  ago,  has 
assumed  large  proportions,  as  there  are  now  no  less  than  fifty 
factories  on  the  islands.  Japan  manufactures  smokeless  gun- 
powder, bringing  the  alcohol  from  Illinois  in  train  lots.  There 
are  in  Japan  three  factories  each  for  the  manufacture  of 
mousseline  de  laine  and  ribbons,  the  latter  in  Tokio,  Maye- 
bashi,  and  Hamamatsu. 

Japan  is  developing  coal  oil  to  an  extent  which  will  affect 
the  market  for  American  oil  in  China,  as  capital  and  energy 
will  not  be  found  wanting  to  develop  the  industry.  The  man- 
ufactures of  India,  China,  and  Japan  are  beginning  to  take 
their  place  in  the  Asiatic  markets  in  competition  with  Ameri- 
can and  European,  and  while  Asiatic  manufactures  of  articles 
hitherto  made  abroad  will  not  immediately  find  place  in 
America  and  Europe,  the  time  may  come  when  they  will  do 


284  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

so.  Japan  is  already  well  started  in  the  manufacture  of  goods 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  people  of  every  land,  and  China 
is  fast  coming  forward  to  administer  to  the  wants  of  civiliza- 
tion. With  the  aid  of  the  directing  American  mind  and 
American  machinery,  the  millions  of  deft  Chinese  fingers  will 
go  far  in  ministering  to  the  wants  of  the  world. 

Among  many  other  things  which  prove  in  the  end  a  profit 
or  a  loss,  the  Japanese  have  taken  up  the  manufacture  of  glass. 
Says  the  Japan  Times  of  July  1898,  "  Side  by  side  with  the 
satisfactory  development  of  various  lines  of  industry,  the 
glass-making  business  is  languishing  in  its  preliminary  stages. 
To  account  for  conditions  in  this  line  of  industry,  it  is  al- 
leged, in  the  first  place,  that  in  Japanese  establishments  there 
are  no  experts  or  skilled  workmen,  while  the  engagement  of 
foreign  experts  is  rendered  impossible,  owing  to  the  heavy  pay 
required  by  the  latter;  secondly,  the  cost  of  coal  and  labor 
is  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  prices  of  the  manufactured 
article;  thirdly,  as  the  result  of  competition  among  the  fac- 
tories of  small  means,  proper  finish  is  wanting  in  the  articles 
produced,  so  that  the  market  is  flooded  with  foreign-made 
goods.  There  are  at  present  private  factories  in  the  capital, 
where  the  products  are  limited  to  beer  and  medicine  bottles. 
The  Tokyo  glass  factory  is  the  only  place  where  chimneys  for 
use  in  light-houses,  as  well  as  other  articles,  are  manufactured 
to  any  extent,  but  nowhere  has  the  manufacture  of  window- 
glass  yet  been  started.  The  depression  in  the  trade  has  com- 
pelled all  the  lamp-chimney  manufacturers  in  Osaka  to  sus- 
pend business  for  a  month.  It  has  been  arranged  by  the 
union  that  each  factory  shall  deposit  the  sum  of  250  yen, 
which  will  be  forfeited  in  the  event  of  a  breach  of  the  agree- 
ment." 

The  telegraph  and  telephone  service  in  Japan  is  owned  by 
the  government,  the  machinery  coming  mainly  from  the 
United  States.  Japan  makes  a  poor  quality  of  leather  for 
export,  but  when  a  good  article  is  required  it  is  brought  from 
abroad.  The  Japanese  leather  is  used  for  making  satchels, 
furniture  coverings,  cheap  shoes,  and  machine  belting.  The 
two  principal  tanneries  in  Japan  are  at  Osaka  and  Tokio. 

The  Japanese  are  making  rapid  advance  in  shipbuilding, 
having  just  completed  at  Nagasaki  the  largest  steamship  ever 
built  outside  of  the  United  States  or  Europe.  The  vessel, 


MINKS  AND  MANUFACTURES  285 

called  the  UUaclii  Maru,  was  constructed  by  the  Mitsu  Bishi 
company  for  the  Nippon  Yusen  Kaisha,  and  was  about  twelve 
months  in  the  yards,  and  the  same  company  has  already  a 
sister  ship  in  the  works.  Near  the  engine  works  of  the  Mitsu 
Bishi  company  is  their  new  granite  dock,  all  with  the  latest 
improvements.  The  company  employs  2,000  men;  laborer's 
wages  60  sen  or  30  cents  a  day,  artisans  one  yen,  or  50  cents, 
and  upward.  Wages  are  advancing  with  the  increased  cost  of 
living.  As  to  cheap  labor  in  Japan,  it  is  said  that  while  the 
Osaka  Watch  company  pay  their  workmen  40  to  50  sen,  or 
20  to  25  cents  a  day,  as  against  $3  a  day  in  the  United  States, 
one  American  will  accomplish  as  much  as  seven  or  eight 
Japanese,  and  with  all  their  ingenuity  and  skill,  applications 
and  cheap  labor,  the  Japanese  cannot  make  profitable  the 
manufacture  of  watches  and  like  industries. 

The  world  of  manufactures  owes  China  something  on  the 
score  of  her  inventions.  Pity  that  the  mariner's  compass  that 
guides  the  spoiler's  ships  to  her  shores,  and  the  gunpowder 
with  which  to  blow  open  her  gates  for  the  entrance  of  foreign 
devils  with  their  uncelestial  contrivances,  should  have  origi- 
nated in  the  land  thus  injured  by  them.  The  celestial  empire 
offers  alluring  prospects  to  American  enterprise.  With  her 
hungry  hordes  advancing  rapidly  in  all  the  arts  and  appetites 
of  advancing  thought  and  purpose,  she  will  require  to  know 
much  which  America  can  teach,  and  to  have  many  things 
which  America  can  furnish.  With  her  great  resources  her 
exports  now  are  next  to  nothing,  being  one  seventh  of  those 
of  France,  with  seven  times  the  population.  There  are  mines 
to  be  developed  and  manufactures  to  be  established;  the  yield 
of  coal  and  iron,  of  gold  silver  and  lead  will  be  limitless,  and 
under  proper  direction  the  Chinese  laborer  and  artisan  are 
among  the  best  in  the  world. 

Silk  and  cotton  manufactures  in  China  are  situated  mostly 
in  the  western  part  of  the  temperate  zone,  it  being  too  cold 
in  the  north  and  too  hot  in  the  south  for  the  profitable  de- 
velopment of  those  industries;  nevertheless  silk  of  some  sort 
is  grown  in  all  parts.  Steam  filatures  under  foreign  manage- 
ment are  now  established  in  Shanghai,  Canton,  Hankau, 
Chifu,  and  Chingkiang.  Cotton-growing  has  not  as  yet  as- 
sumed very  large  proportions,  though  cotton  manufactures  are 
increasing.  There  were  in  1899  a  dozen  mills  perhaps  in  the 


286  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

cotton-growing  region  from  Shanghai  to  Hankau  and  Tchang. 
An  impulse  was  given  to  building  of  cotton  and  silk  factories 
by  the  concession  to  import  machinery  to  Japan  in  the 
treaty  of  Shimonoseki.  With  raw  material  and  cheap  labor 
without  limit,  textile  manufacturing  is  making  a  rapid  ad- 
vance in  China.  The  advance  in  the  price  of  foreign  cottons, 
and  a  consequent  decline  in  imports  tend  all  the  more  to 
stimulate  manufactures  on  the  Asiatic  coast. 

Within  a  few  years  great  industrial  changes  have  taken 
place  in  China,  a  revolution  in  some  branches  of  manufacture 
having  been  brought  about  by  railway,  steamboat,  and  tele- 
graph construction,  and  the  introduction  of  American  ma- 
chinery. The  branches  most  affected  by  the  Shimonoseki 
treaty  between  Japan  and  China,  which  gave  Japan  the  right 
to  manufacture  certain  articles  in  China  without  taxation,  are 
in  cotton  and  silk;  hence  ginning  mills,  weaving  mills,  and 
silk  filatures  sprang  up  on  every  side,  threatening  to  make  of 
Shanghai  in  particular  an  oriental  Manchester.  Mukden  is  a 
comparatively  clean  city,  with  broad  streets  and  fine  resi- 
dences. Its  manufactures  are  large  and  lucrative,  the  more 
important  being  silk  weaving  and  the  dressing  of  furs.  Shang- 
hai has  a  cigarette  factory,  with  a  constantly  increasing  de- 
mand for  the  product.  Silk  manufacture  here  is  also  increas- 
ing. There  are  in  operation  about  twenty-five  steam  filatures 
in  Shanghai,  and  several  at  Hangchau  and  Suchau  in  process 
of  construction. 

In  an  old-time  factory  the  hum  of  machinery  is  never 
heard;  the  work  is  all  done  by  hand.  The  industries  of  every 
considerable  town  include  those  of  the  carpenter,  blacksmith, 
tailor,  shoemaker,  weaver,  dyer,  stone-cutter,  brickmaker, 
jeweler,  undertaker,  workers  in  gold,  silver,  pewter  and  brass, 
and  lime  and  charcoal  burners.  Workmen  and  artisans'  wages 
are  from  twenty  to  forty  cents  a  day.  The  leading  Hongkong 
local  industries  are  rope-making  and  sugar-refining.  The 
raw  sugar  is  brought  from  Java,  Manila,  Formosa,  and  south- 
ern China;  the  refined  sugar  is  sent  to  California,  Australia, 
India,  Japan,  and  to  several  of  the  ports  of  China.  The  rope 
is  made  mostly  from  Manila  hemp.  Contracts  for  river  and 
ocean  vessels  have  been  freely  given  to  English  ship-builders, 
who  have  their  agents  constantly  in  the  field  soliciting  con- 
tracts. Englishmen  and  Americans  are  also  on  the  ground 


MINES  AND  MANUFACTURES  287 

seeking  contracts  for  building  railways  and  manufactories,  in 
view  of  the  present  and  future  industrial  development. 

As  American  greatness  continues  to  grow,  and  worshippers 
at  her  shrine  increase  in  numbers,  the  traffic  in  Asiatic  en- 
ginery for  the  expression  of  American  feeling  enlarges,  until 
the  quantity  of  fire-crackers  of  the  long  past  Fourth-of-Julys, 
as  compared  with  that  of  the  present  time,  sinks  into  insig- 
nificance. Long  before  America  or  her  independence  was 
known  or  thought  of,  fire-crackers  were  made  and  used  in 
China,  first  to  frighten  away  spirits  of  evil,  and  secondly  to 
arouse  the  spirits  of  pleasure  at  weddings,  births,  and  new- 
year  celebrations.  There  are  no  large  factories  with  me- 
chanical inventions  for  this  manufacture,  but  the  fire-crackers 
are  made  in  shops  and  the  houses  at  which  they  are  sold. 
Kawangtung  is  the  principal  province  for  this  industry,  and 
the  chief  ports  are  Kowloon,  whence  in  1897  were  sent  out 
24,074,267  pounds;  Canton,  exporting  1,067,200;  Lappa, 
907,733  pounds;  and  Swatau,  656,533  pounds,  the  whole  26,- 
705,733  pounds  being  valued  by  the  Chinese  imperial  cus- 
toms at  1,993,082  haikwan  taels,  or  $1,584,151.  The  larger 
part  of  these  shipments  were  by  sailing  vessels  to  New  York, 
at  a  freight  rate  of  from  $2.25  to  $4.25  per  ton  of  forty  cubic 
feet.  Large  as  is  the  export  of  this  article,  it  is  small  as  com- 
pared with  the  fire-crackers  used  in  China,  whose  devils  are 
legion  and  at  times  annoying.  Thirty  women  and  ten  men 
make  100,000  firecrackers  in  a  day,  which  is  from  6  o'clock 
in  the  morning  till  11  o'clock  at  night,  and  there  are  in  China 
seven  such  days  to  the  week.  An  expert  workman  earns  from 
seven  to  ten  cents  a  day. 

Korea  manufactures  but  little  for  export;  the  paper,  mats, 
blinds,  fans,  and  brass  and  copper  utensils  there  made,  all 
of  the  coarsest  fabrication,  are  used  by  the  Koreans  them- 
selves, for  the  reason  if  none  other  that  no  one  else  would  care 
to  have  them.  They  could  do  well  in  the  culture  of  silk,  and 
could  extend  their  rice  plantations,  were  their  rulers  disposed 
to  leave  them  some  of  the  results  of  their  labor,  and  help  them 
to  get  started  on  the  road  to  prosperity  and  wealth.  In  ancient 
times  the  Koreans  made  fine  pottery,  as  found  in  the  royal 
tombs;  they  taught  the  art  to  the  Japanese,  who  a  hundred 
years  ago  came  down  on  the  Koreans  in  force  and  carried  off 
pots  and  potters,  so  that  now  Japan  fattens  on  the  theft,  while 


•?88  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

the  poor  Koreans  have  forgotten  all  they  ever  knew.  So  few 
are  the  manufactures  that  the  middle  class  are  almost  entirely 
without  skilled  occupation.  They  must  either  live  in  idleness 
like  the  upper  class,  or  apply  themselves  to  rude  labor  for 
mere  subsistence  like  the  lower  class. 

A  tough  paper  is  made  in  Korea,  as  strong  as  vellum, 
some  of  it  oiled;  also  window  blinds  of  split  bamboo  and 
grass  mats.  Manufactured  ginseng  pays  an  excise  duty  of  $16 
a  cattie.  On  their  native  looms  they  weave  yarn,  for  which 
a  large  demand  is  springing  up.  Of  brass,  many  articles  are 
made,  among  others  dinner  sets.  From  old  designs  black 
lacquer  is  inlaid  with  mother  of  pearl;  they  also  embroider  in 
silk  and  gold  thread.  The  cabinet-makers  do  some  really 
fine  work  in  the  way  of  bureaus  and  boxes  of  solid  chestnut, 
and  in  maple  and  peach  veneer  with  brass  fastenings. 

On  the  island  of  Formosa  grows  the  paper-plant,  from  th'e 
pith  of  which  the  so-called  rice  paper  of  commerce  is  manu- 
factured. From  this  paper  artificial  flowers  are  here  made, 
and  at  Hongkong  sun  hats.  The  distillation  of  camphor  from 
the  water  in  which  has  been  boiled  chips  of  the  root,  stump, 
and  branches  of  the  camphor  tree  is  one  of  the  most  important 
industries  of  the  island.  From  the  varnish  tree  is  made  a 
good  varnish,  used  in  cabinet-making.  Pottery  is  made  by  the 
savage  Malays,  mixing  and  moulding  both  being  done  by 
hand.  Chinese  potters  at  Sakaeng,  in  the  north  of  Formosa, 
use  a  horizontal  wheel,  like  the  one  spoken  of  in  biblical  story, 
and  used  even  now  in  Palestine,  where  no  doubt  the  Chinese 
obtained  it,  if  indeed  the  Jews  did  not  get  theirs  from  the 
Chinese.  The  proposed  railway  through  Formosa  and  the  im- 
provement of  Kelung  harbor  will  require  no  small  quantity 
of  American  material  and  machinery. 

Raw  material  in  China  is  abundant,  and  skilled  labor  as 
low  as  ten  cents  a  day;  so  that  the  opportunities  for  manu- 
facturing are  of  the  best.  In  the  cotton  factories  of  Wachang 
the  operatives  are  paid  from  four  to  eight  cents  a  day.  Flour 
mills  even  in  the  interior  are  taking  the  place  of  mortar  and 
pestle,  which  are  still  used  however,  as  well  as  the  ancient 
method  of  grinding  by  turning  one  large  rough  stone  placed 
on  another  by  means  of  ox  and  pole  attached.  On  a  par  with 
ox  or  horse  grist-mills  are  ox  or  horse  saw-mills,  which  after 
all  offer  advantages  over  the  ripsaw  method  by  which  the 


MINES  AND  MANUFACTURES  289 

United  States  forest  clearings  were  largely  made.  Each  one  of 
a  thousand  small  saw-mills  should  pay  well  in  China. 

It  is  in  and  near  the  tropics  that  the  fullest  conditions  are 
found  for  the  production  of  material  for  manufactures  and 
food  for  men.  Yet  in  the  absence  of  skilled  artisans  and  effi- 
cient administration  there  is  a  lack  of  manufactures  in  many 
of  the  most  important  branches  of  industry.  There  are  many 
large  cigar  and  cigarette  factories  at  Manila;  some  of  them 
are  owned  by  Germans  Swiss  and  English,  and  employ  each 
4,000  operatives.  The  Spaniards  have  an  electric  plant,  tele- 
phone exchange,  steam  and  horse  tramway,  and  brewery. 
There  is  a  steam  rice  mill,  a  sugar  refinery,  a  German  cement 
factory  with  TO  hands,  a  Swiss  umbrella  factory,  a  Swiss  hat 
factory,  an  English  cotton-mill  of  6,000  spindles.  Pina  cloth, 
woven  from  the  fibre  of  the  pineapple,  is  costly,  and  worn  only 
by  the  wealthy,  an  elaborately  embroidered  pina  gown  being 
valued  at  $1,000  to  $2,000.  The  tobacco  manufactory  is  con- 
ducted on  a  large  scale,  in  rows  of  rooms  filled  with  women. 
It  surrounds  a  court,  on  entering  which  a  noise  and  din  strike 
the  ear  not  unlike  that  of  a  large  cotton  factory.  The  finest 
shops  are  kept  by  Chinamen.  The  30,000  Chinese  in  Manila 
are  divided  for  purposes  of  taxation  by  the  government  into 
four  classes,  merchants,  shop-keepers,  artisans,  and  laborers. 

The  sugar  factories  make  nearly  all  of  their  machinery. 
The  Honolulu  Iron  works  give  good  satisfaction.  Two  fac- 
tories manufacture  the  10,000  tons  of  fertilizer  which  is  re- 
quired every  year  to  sustain  the  land  under  continuous  crops. 
About  700  tons  of  hard  coal  for  manufacturing  purposes  are 
brought  each  year  from  the  United  States,  but  most  of  the 
coal  here  used  comes  from  British  Columbia,  Australia,  and 
New  Zealand. 

In  Australia  the  labor  unions  are  stronger  than  in  the 
United  States;  wages  are  higher  and  time  shorter;  eight 
hours  being  the  rule.  In  Melbourne  wages  are  100  per  cent 
more  for  twenty  per  cent  less  time  than  in  London,  and  yet 
the  c.ost  of  products  are  scarcely  twenty  per  cent  more  in  the 
colonies.  New  Zealand  offered  a  prize  of  $10,000  for  the  best 
process,  mechanical  or  chemical,  of  treating  the  native  fibre 
of  New  Zealand  hemp,  which  works  up  into  a  fabric  as  soft 
as  silk.  Carriages  are  made  in  the  colony  of  Victoria  under  a 
protective  duty  of  £40  each,  the  wood  for  the  same  being  ob- 
tained from  the  United  States. 


290  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

Wages  along  the  South  American  coast  vary  somewhat  ac- 
cording to  locality,  being  higher  in  the  cities  and  seaports 
than  in  the  country.  Thus  common,  or  peon,  labor,  which  in 
the  interior  is  from  20  to  30  cents  a  day,  is  from  50  to  75 
cents  at  Valparaiso,  and  $1.25  at  the  nitrate  works.  Factory 
operatives  are,  female  22  to  90  cents  a  day;  male,  40  to  $1.20; 
mechanics  $1  to  $3.50  a  day;  servants  wages  $2  to  $20  a 
month.  In  Chili,  tobacco  and  playing-cards  are  government 
monopolies,  and  no  person  may  grow  the  one  or  manufacture 
the  other  without  special  permission,  which  is  seldom  granted. 
On  such  tracks  of  folly  and  vice,  with  lotteries  and  intoxicat- 
ing drink,  the  wheels  of  justice  and  legislation  are  made  to 
revolve.  Bolivia  and  Chili  manufacture  and  export  copper. 
Valdivia  manufactures  large  quantities  of  sole  leather,  shipped 
largely  to  Russia  via  Hamburg,  good  tan  bark  being  plentiful 
in  south  Chili.  Soap  is  an  important  article  of  manufacture 
at  Valparaiso,  the  caustic  soda  being  brought  from  England. 
Flour  sacks  are  made  in  Chili  from  United  States  cotton,  but 
gunnybags  for  wheat,  nitrate,  and  ores  are  brought  from  India 
via  London  or  Hamburg.  Four  large  breweries  at  Valparaiso 
manufacture  most  of  the  beer  used  in  the  country,  distribut- 
ing it  liberally  up  and  down  the  coast.  Rolling  stock  for  rail- 
roads is  made  mostly  in  the  country,  though  some  of  it  is  im- 
ported. As  in  New  South  Wales,  nearly  all  the  railways  of 
southern  Chili,  and  the  manufacturing  connected  with  them, 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  state.  There  is  very  little  cloth  made 
in  this  country,  the  greater  part  of  the  cotton  and  woollen 
goods  consumed  being  brought  from  England.  There  are 
many  large  tanneries  in  Chili,  but  they  are  employed  only  on 
the  coarse  hides  of  the  country,  some  of  the  production  being 
thus  used  for  a  low  grade  of  native  leather,  and  some  of  them 
sent  to  Germany.  The  good  leather  is  brought  from  England. 
Boots  and  shoes  are  extensively  made,  mostly  by  piece  and 
prison  work.  The  better  quality  is  imported  from  England 
principally,  though  some  comes  from  Germany.  Saddlery 
and  harness  are  made  at  home;  also  leather  belting.  ; 

Loveto,  situated  near  the  headwaters  of  the  Amazon,  is  fast 
becoming  an  industrial  centre,  manufacturing  as  well  as  com- 
mercial. But  owing  to  the  excessive  freight  rates  over  the 
crest  of  the  cordillera  there  is  but  little  trade  intercourse  be- 
tween these  two  parts  of  Peru,  even  the  manufactures  of  chev- 


MINES  AND  MANUFACTURES  291 

lots,  blankets,  and  buckskins  seldom  finding  their  way  in  large 
quantities  over  the  mountains.  Guayaquil,  the  chief  port  of 
Ecuador,  has  extensive  tobacco  and  cocoa  factories,  and  ex- 
ports lumber  and  various  fine  woods. 

In  Colombia  the  sierra  reaches  a  height  of  23,779  feet,  per- 
petual snow  covering  the  summit.  Although  there  are  some 
manufactories,  agriculture  is  first  among  industries  in  this  re- 
public. Some  work  is  done  in  metals,  all  of  which  are  here 
plentiful.  Great  discoveries  are  yet  to  be  made  in  this  region, 
as  it  has  been  but  partially  prospected.  There  are  also  virgin 
forests  of  precious  woods,  the  indiarubber,  cinchona,  sarsa- 
parilla,  cotton,  indigo,  and  many  other  commercial  and  medi- 
cinal trees  and  plants.  Bogota  has  glass-works,  distilleries, 
and  sulphuric  acid  and  cigar  factories,  while  Panama  makes 
hats  and  exports  cotton,  coffee,  tobacco,  silver,  cinchona  bark, 
and  indigo.  Turtles  and  pearl  oysters  abound.  The  manu- 
factures of  Nicaragua  are  not  large;  they  consist  of  sugar, 
soap,  aguardiente,  coarse  leather  and  common  furniture,  most 
manufactured  articles  being  brought  in  from  abroad.  In  the 
other  Central  American  states  manufactures  are  much  the 
same. 

Mexico  has  scores  of  breweries,  the  bottles  coming  from 
Germany.  Thus  far  there  has  been  no  bottle  factory  in  the 
republic,  though  Chihuahua  is  seriously  considering  estab- 
lishing one  in  that  section.  Manufactures  in  the  city  of 
Mexico  have  increased  three  fold  within  twelve  years,  and  they 
would  increase  still  faster  but  for  the  high  cost  of  fuel,  wood 
being  $18  a  cord  and  coal  $20  a  ton,  a  Mexican  dollar  being 
worth  about  half  of  an  American  dollar.  On  the  other  hand 
manufactures  have  been  stimulated  by  a  high  protective  tariff, 
high  rate  of  transportation,  and  the  depreciated  currency, 
making  the  cost  to  the  consumer  of  an  article  manufactured 
in  the  United  States  nominally  about  five  times  the  original 
cost.  But  though  fuel  on  the  table  land  is  scarce,  there  is 
good  water-power  in  places,  and  cheap  labor  everywhere. 
Woollen  clothes,  blankets,  carpets,  prints,  underwear,  hats,  and 
shoes,  once  imported  are  now  manufactured  in  Mexico  by  mod- 
ern machinery  obtained  for  the  most  part  from  the  United 
States.  Shoes  are  even  sent  into  the  United  States. 


CHAPTEK   XII 

COMMERCE   OF  THE   PACIFIC 

IF  the  earth  is  primarily  for  the  use  of  man,  then  the  sea  is 
primarily  for  the  use  of  commerce;  for  in  no  other  way  can 
the  world  of  waters  be  so  successfully  subordinated  to  the 
benefits  of  the  human  race,  as  in  bearing  the  surplus  prod- 
ucts of  one  country  to  another  to  the  ultimate  advantage  of  all. 

In  the  midst  of  a  world  of  intellectual  and  industrial  ac- 
tivity, of  startling  thought  and  daring  venture,  we  find  pre- 
eminent above  all  other  powers  and  potentialities,  Commerce. 
Wars  command  our  interest;  politics  and  industry,  the  rail- 
way and  the  mines,  have  our  attention;  but  all  are  tributary 
to  King  Commerce,  whom  the  tsar  serves,  and  to  whom  Salis- 
bury and  sweet  William  bend  the  knee.  And  the  great  field 
for  the  new  commerce  of  the  coming  century  is  the  New  Pa- 
cific, where  so  lately  reigned  supreme  barbarism  and  savagery. 

As  agricultural  and  industrial  pursuits  may  be  said  to  con- 
stitute the  body  politic  of  the  nation,  so  commerce  is  its  vital 
blood,  without  which  there  is  little  life  or  progress.  For  the 
main-springs  of  human  action  are  found  in  the  wants  rather 
than  in  the  wealth  of  mankind,  and  commerce  is  organized 
for  the  supply  of  those  wants,  as  well  as  for  the  accumulation 
and  concentration  of  wealth. 

As  a  matter  of  interest  to  the  human  race,  commerce  now 
assumes  the  position  formerly  occupied  by  discovery  and  sea 
adventure.  The  earlier  voyages  into  and  around  the  Pacific 
were  not  so  much  for  purposes  of  territorial  acquisition  and 
legitimate  trade,  as  for  gold-gathering  with  valueless  trinkets, 
or  in  connection  with  soul-saving  at  the  point  of  the  sword. 

Henceforth  commercial  supremacy  as  a  nation  signifies  first 
of  all  trade  with  eastern  Asia,  Australia,  the  South  Sea  isles, 
and  the  west  coast  of  North  America,  that  is  to  say  supremacy 
on  the  Pacific.  No  sea  power  will  hereafter  pretend  to  the 

292 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  293 

first  rank  unless  it  is  a  power  on  the  Pacific,  the  Pacific  being 
first  of  oceans,  its  waters  the  broadest,  its  shores  the  richest, 
and  its  islands  the  most  important.  And  great  as  has  been 
prosperity  and  the  growth  of  wealth  in  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  past  century,  all  will  pale  into  insignificance  before 
present  developments.  The  opening  of  the  Orient  to  our 
commerce  will  be  but  an  incident  to  the  general  uprising  of 
the  industrial  world,  in  which  America  and  all  the  countries 
around  the  Pacific  will  play  prominent  parts. 

England  leads  as  a  maritime  nation,  with  a  steamship  capac- 
ity in  1898  of  11,576  vessels,  aggregating  18,887,132  tons,  and 
a  sailing-vessel  capacity  of  28,885  ships,  aggregating  8,893,- 
769  tons,  the  latter  declining  in  number  and  capacity  as  the 
former  increases.  Next  in  steam  tonnage  is  Germany  with 
1,625,521  tons,  while  next  to  England  in  sail  is  the  United 
States  with  1,285,859  tons,  followed  by  Norway  with  1,144,- 
482  tons,  and  Germany  with  535,937  tons.  France  has  925,- 
682  tons  of  steam  tonnage,  the  United  States  910,800  tons, 
and  Norway  628,493  tons.  Great  Britain's  largest  trade  is 
with  India;  then  follow  Australia  and  the  United  States. 
Yet  England  reserves  no  advantages  to  herself  over  others  in 
her  Indian  trade,  while  India  is  at  liberty  to  send  her  products 
anywhere. 

The  greater  part  of  England's  colonial  empire  has  been 
created  within  the  last  half  century.  A  hundred  years  ago  her 
West  Indian  possessions  were  highly  esteemed,  but  now, 
though  not  diminished,  they  are  of  comparatively  little  value. 
Thus  we  see  that  even  tropical  lands  may  depreciate  in  value, 
owing  perhaps  as  much  to  political  or  economic,  as  to  physical 
or  commercial,  causes.  The  inhabitants  of  these  declining 
isles  have  no  standing,  and  every  country  great  or  small  should 
guard  well  its  credit.  There  can  never  exist  true  commercial 
intercourse  between  nations  without  confidence  and  credit, 
and  these  can  be  established  only  by  proper  laws  and  regula- 
tions, backed  by  individual  integrity.  England  loans  to  her 
colonists  £800,000,000  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest  than  she 
loans  elsewhere,  because  she  knows  her  own  people,  and  knows 
the  money  will  be  paid.  England  is  far  from  her  own  country 
nowhere  in  the  world,  and  hence  she  is  in  a  position  to  domi- 
nate the  world  commercially.  She  is  never  far  from  a  market, 
or  from  a  source  of  supply;  never  far  from  a  naval  or  coaling 
station  of  her  own. 


294  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

To  most  men  Alaska  seemed  a  superfluity  when  the  purcnase 
was  made,  but  we  see  now  a  good  use  for  it  in  the  north 
Pacific,  as  the  Hawaiian  and  Philippine  islands  may  be  useful 
to  us  in  the  middle  Pacific.  Commercial  federation  upon 
some  sound  basis  has  been  proposed  for  Great  Britain  through- 
out her  broad  dominions,  involving  the  formation  of  a  fiscal 
parliament,  with  power  to  impose  a  special  duty  of  two  and  a 
half  per  cent  on  all  .imports,  which  would  furnish  a  fund  of 
£9,000,000  to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  the  federation,  which 
would  be  to  promote  a  cohesive  force,  and  provide  markets 
and  regulate  transportation. 

As  the  United  States  becomes  the  first  of  commercial  na- 
tions, New  York  steps  to  the  front  as  the  chief  commercial 
city  of  the  world,  the  proud  supremacy  held  for  several  cen- 
turies by  London  having  at  last  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  the 
metropolis  of  America.  This,  as  the  work  of  a  century;  how 
will  matters  stand  at  the  end  of  another  century?  For  87 
years  prior  to  1876,  when  the  tide  of  international  commerce 
first  turned  in  favor  of  the  United  States,  there  were  but  16 
annual  balances  of  trade  in  our  favor,  while  during  the  23 
years  succeeding  that  date  there  have  been  but  three  annual 
balances  against  us.  During  the  period  first  named  imports 
averaged  $167,000,000  per  annum,  and  exports  $141,000,000; 
during  the  latter  period  the  imports  averaged  $667,000,000  a 
year,  and  the  exports  $811,000,000. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1899  the  authorized  capital  of 
organized  trusts  or  combines  amounted  to  some  $3,000,000,- 
000,  and  the  work  of  organization  was  going  forward  more 
rapidly  than  ever,  even  the  powers  of  Europe  making  moves 
in  that  direction  for  the  purpose  so  far  as  possible  of  monopo- 
lizing the  commerce  of  the  Pacific. 

Exports  from  the  United  States  to  Great  Britain  are  in- 
creasing while  our  imports  from  that  quarter  are  decreasing, 
the  increase  of  late  being  notably  in  grain,  metals,  fruit,  meat, 
and  cotton.  The  increase  in  agricultural  exports  is  due  to  the 
increase  in  both  quantity  and  value.  The  increase  in  manu- 
factured exports  is  owing  largely  to  the  increased  iron 
products.  To  this  and  other  branches  of  manufacture  cheap- 
ening processes  have  been  introduced.  Iron  ore  and  coal 
have  been  found  in  various  parts,  near  boat  landings,  with 
such  natural  and  artificial  conveniences  and  proximity  to 


COMMEKCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  295 

navigation  as  to  lessen  the  cost,  and  thereby  increase  the  de- 
mand. These,  together  with  the  differentiation  in  trade,  are 
among  the  causes  which  have  given  to  America  commercial 
preeminence.  Our  commerce  has  been  not  inconsiderable  for 
a  century  past;  the  war  with  Spain,  however,  convinced  the 
world  that  henceforth  the  United  States  would  be  a  great 
power,  not  only  in  international  politics  but  in  foreign  com- 
merce, successfully  contesting  for  trade  the  world  over,  and 
capable  of  protecting  her  rights  and  interest  therein.  The 
foreign  commerce  of  the  United  States,  aggregating  for  the 
fiscal  year  1897-1898  $1,800,000,000,  being  of  exports  $1,200,- 
000,000,  and  of  imports  $600,000,000,  exceeds  that  of  either 
France  or  Germany,  and  is  second  only  to  that  of  Great 
Britain.  The  business  prosperity  in  the  United  States  dur- 
ing and  after  hostilities  with  Spain  must  not  be  attributed 
to  the  war,  but  rather  as  coming  without  regard  to  it,  and  be- 
cause the  people  were  somewhat  indifferent  as  to  its  cost.  It 
was  the  same  in  England.  Not  for  ten  years  had  business  and 
stocks  been  so  active.  Most  of  the  manufactories  in  both 
England  and  America  were  run  at  their  full  capacity,  par- 
ticularly those  handling  iron  and  steel;  one  company  or  a 
combination  of  companies  was  incorporated  under  the  laws 
of  New  Jersey  with  a  paid  up  capital  of  $200,000,000. 

Should  our  national  government  ever  deem  it  advisable  to 
have  a  defined  policy  in  commercial  matters,  whether  with  its 
own  distant  possessions  or  with  other  nations,  it  will  be  one 
such  as  England  has  cultivated  in  her  colonies,  and  with  all 
the  world,  and  not  like  those  of  France  and  Spain, — that  is 
to  say  it  will  be  a  free  and  enlightened  policy,  giving  to  all  the 
equal  right  to  buy  and  sell  at  their  best  advantage,  even  as 
to-day  the  New  York  merchant  and  the  Liverpool  merchant 
stand  upon  precisely  the  same  footing  in  sending  goods  to 
India  or  Canada,  while  the  Calcutta  and  Montreal  merchants 
can  buy  their  goods  wherever  they  like.  Such  an  opportu- 
nity, which  is  and  will  be  ours,  is  all  we  require  with  our 
growing  manufactures  to  build  up  a  trade  around  the  Pacific 
such  as  the  world  has  never  before  anywhere  experienced.  A 
generous,  liberal  policy  in  trade,  as  in  everything  else,  is  not 
only  the  best  but  the  most  profitable.  It  is  not  the  narrow- 
minded,  penurious  man  or  government  that  thereby  becomes 
the  most  wealthy  and  prosperous.  Were  the  same  business 


296  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

policy  pursued  at  New  York  and  Chicago  as  at  Washington, 
the  world's  commercial  supremacy  would  never  have  removed 
itself  to  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

To  take  rank  as  a  first-class  commercial  power  the  United 
States  must  have  more  shipping,  and  stop  paying  $150,000,- 
000  every  year  for  transportation;  and  to  accomplish  this  the 
government  should  take  such  steps  as  are  necessary.  If  the 
authorities  at  Washington  are  not  familiar  with  the  business, 
or  have  not  the  intelligence  or  energy  or  money  to  do  this,  let 
them  learn  methods  from  the  Japanese,  and  borrow  money  in 
China,  and  man  our  ships  with  Malays,  only  let  us  have  a 
merchant  marine  worthy  of  our  position  among  nations  and 
our  pretensions  as  a  sea  power.  It  is  surely  unnecessary  to 
speak  here  of  the  first  principles  of  national  development,  or 
to  consider  how  Phoenicia,  Italy,  Holland,  and  England  each 
became  great  through  their  sea  commerce;  and  now  when  the 
United  States  has  every  opportunity  and  every  incentive  to 
lead  the  world  in  the  carrying  trade,  our  maritime  men  sit  down 
and  begin  to  figure  up  the  difference  in  seamen's  wages,  and 
the  amount  of  money  mail  contracts  and  ship  subsidizing  will 
draw  off  from  such  legitimate  purposes  as  political  campaigns, 
soldiers'  pensions,  and  the  like.  Americans  should  blush  to 
have  their  mails  and  goods  carried  in  foreign  bottoms,  even 
though  it  cost  twice  as  much  to  carry  them  in  their  own  ves- 
sels. While  squandering  hundreds  of  millions  annually  on 
worse  than  useless  things,  Americans  should  be  ashamed  of 
the  legislation  which  allows  demagogues,  bribed  by  railway 
magnates,  to  impede  progress  by  defeating  such  measures  as 
an  interoceanic  ship  canal.  I  should  be  loath  to  say  that  I 
think  the  Japanese  a  better  people  than  the  Americans,  who 
so  lately  brought  them  out  of  their  isolated  barbarism;  but 
there  are  some  things  which  these  Asiatics  can  even  now  teach 
their  teachers. 

The  expanding  commerce  of  the  United  States  immediately 
following  the  war  was  manifest  in  the  unusual  demand  for 
ships  and  the  increased  activity  in  ship-building.  The  ad- 
ministration decided  not  only  to  retain  all  vessels  purchased 
during  the  war,  but  to  confine  trade  between  American  and 
Porto  Rican  ports  to  American  vessels.  It  was  realized  at 
once  that  notwithstanding  industrial  supremacy  had  passed 
to  some  extent  from  Europe  to  America,  we  are  far  behind 


COMMENCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  297 

some  others  in  the  carrying  trade.  And  we  saw  again,  as  we 
have  seen  before,  that  we  never  shall  be  a  great  commercial 
nation  so  long  as  we  depend  on  others  for  our  carrying.  We 
may  think  to  get  this  done  by  others  cheaper  than  we  can  do 
it  ourselves.  So  thought  Spain  when  she  turned  over  her 
manufactures  for  America  to  France  and  Flanders,  and,  hand- 
ing over  in  payment  therefor  the  gold  from  America,  lapsed 
into  laziness. 

England's  policy  has  been  not  only  the  protection  of  her 
merchant  marine  by  means  of  subsidies  and  mail  compensa- 
tion, but  to  encourage  ship-building  by  placing  contracts  with 
her  own  builders,  who  were  thereby  enabled  to  equip  yards 
and  construct  dry  docks,  not  only  at  home  but  in  every  part 
of  the  world.  These  plants  in  1899  reached  in  value  $100,- 
000,000,  and  their  building  capacity  was  4,500,000  tons,  as 
against  some  300,000  tons  in  the  United  States.  Every  har- 
bor on  the  Pacific  coast  should  be  alive  with  this  industry. 
Under  wise  systems  of  subsidies  all  the  great  powers  are  en- 
couraging ship-sailing  and  ship-building,  the  United  States 
the  least  of  all.  In  Germany  the  industry  is  now  nearly  equal 
to  that  of  Great  Britain,  no  less  than  twenty-four  men  of  war 
having  been  delivered  from  her  yards  to  foreign  governments 
within  the  past  three  years.  The  state  railways  are  employed 
in  the  transportation  of  material  at  merely  nominal  rates,  so 
as  to  enable  the  ship-builder  to  construct  the  best  possible 
craft  for  the  smallest  amount  of  money.  The  duties  on  iron 
and  other  materials  for  ship-building  have  been  reduced.  It 
is  against  the  United  States  especially  that  the  competitive 
energies  of  Germany  are  directed,  and  with  the  determination 
to  be  before  us  in  the  Asiatic  trade.  Up  to  a  late  date  the 
yearly  contributions  for  the  support  of  steamship  lines  to  the 
east  coast  of  Asia  have  been, — by  Great  Britain,  $1,250,000; 
Spain,  $416,000;  Russia,  $405,000;  Austria,  $306,000;  Italy, 
$277,000;  United  States,  $40,000.  As  the  commissioner  of 
navigation  remarked,  "  we  have  deluded  ourselves  into  the 
belief  that  the  Pacific  trade  will  become  ours  without  taking 
ordinary  precautions  to  meet  competition."  For  maintaining 
steamship  lines  to  certain  ports  in  Australasia,  Oceanica, 
China,  and  Japan,  the  Nordeutscher  Lloyd  Steamship  com- 
pany now  receives  from  the  German  government  5,590,000 
marks,  or  over  $1,330,000  a  year  for  fifteen  years.  This  is 


298  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

about  three  times  as  much  as  Germany  was  previously  paying 
for  postal  and  commercial  subsidies  in  that  quarter. 

A  century  before  the  revolution  American  colonists  seemed 
more  alive  to  their  shipping  interests  than  the  people  of  the 
United  States  do  at  present.  It  was  for  the  protection  and 
promotion  of  foreign  commerce  primarily  that  the  federation 
of  the  American  colonies  was  consummated,  and  it  was 
trade  impositions  and  the  infringement  of  our  maritime 
rights,  which  led  with  other  causes  to  the  American  revolu- 
tion. The  war  for  independence  destroyed  commerce  and 
ruined  ship  owners.  But  by  tonnage  duties,  discriminating 
customs,  and  other  means  of  protection,  American  shipping 
was  revived  in  1789,  and  in  1810  ninety  per  cent  of  American 
commerce  was  carried  in  American  ships,  whereas  now  ninety 
per  cent  of  American  commerce  is  carried  in  foreign  ships. 

To  attribute  England's  success  and  America's  failure  in  the 
ship-building  and  navigating  business  to  economic  conditions, 
as  some  put  it,  is  absurd.  The  fault  is  in  the  men  who  make 
the  conditions,  economic  or  otherwise,  or  fail  to  make  them, 
or  in  the  government,  which  fails  to  make  possible  natural 
conditions.  There  are  no  economic  differences  worth  men- 
tioning as  regards  the  ship-building  industry,  in  Europe  or 
America,  or  even  Japan,  unless  it  be  that  the  United  States 
has  natural  advantages  over  both  the  others. 

It  is  no  fault  of  American  ship  owners  that  they  cannot 
compete  with  foreign  subsidized  ships.  If  we  are  to  have  a 
merchant  marine  it  must  have  government  protection,  as  has 
the  shipping  of  other  nations,  else  we  want  no  interoceanic 
canals  or  Asiatic  archipelagoes,  no  open  doors  or  spheres  of 
influence.  We  can  build  as  fine  steamers  as  any  other  nation, 
— instance  the  American  line  across  the  Atlantic,  which  could 
not  exist  but  for  its  mail  subsidy.  We  can  build  fine  war- 
ships, and  fine  lake  and  sound  boats;  yet  we  must  stand  idly 
by  and  see  Great  Britain  and  Little  Japan  getting  away  with 
our  carrying  trade  because  our  government  is  too  shortsighted 
or  too  indifferent  to  protect  its  own  interests.  There  is  much 
talk  about  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to  the  Philippines; 
less  is  being  said  of  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to  the  United 
States.  The  public  money  is  taken  to  fight  Spain  and  capture 
islands,  only  to  see  our  commerce  fall  to  other  nations  who 
see  the  benefit  of  sustaining  their  own  commerce. 


COMMERCE  OP  THE  PACIFIC  299 

A  northern  railroad  man  figures  up  that  "  a  ship  of  5,000 
tons  capacity,  leaving  the  Pacific  coast  every  day  in  the  year, 
would  carry  1,500,000  tons  annually  across  the  Pacific  ocean 
to  Asia.  What  would  it  cost?  A  bonus  of  $2  per  ton  would 
insure  the  building  of  ships  as  fast  as  the  shipyard  could  turn 
them  out;  $2  per  ton  would  amount  to  $3,000,000  per  year. 
Our  country  cannot  stand  still.  She  must  go  ahead  or  back- 
wards. If  the  present  changes  in  the  Orient  bring  about  the 
results  in  China  that  have  been  brought  about  in  Japan,  you 
will  find  a  greater  development  of  trade  on  the  Pacific  ocean 
in  the  next  25  years  than  the  world  has  ever  seen  in  its  his- 
tory." 

Three  millions  a  year  for  ten  years  this  man  says  will  place 
the  United  States  on  an  equality  with  other  nations  as  com- 
merce carriers,  a  sum  equivalent  to  one-tenth  the  cost  of  the 
Spanish  war,  one-fortieth  of  the  expenditure  in  pensions,  one- 
half  as  much  as  we  spent  on  the  starving  reconcentrados  of 
Cuba,  one-hundredth  part  as  much  as  is  wasted  in  personal 
patriotism,  that  is  to  say  in  that  kind  of  service  of  country 
which  seeks  the  good  of  the  person  instead  of  that  of  the 
nation.  Of  the  benefits  to  our  western  seaboard  of  so  insig- 
nificant a  sum  as  this  we  are  assured  that  "  its  disbursement 
under  proper  restrictions  would  convert  the  Pacific  coast  from 
a  mere  producer  of  raw  materials  into  a  manufacturing  coun- 
try. Stretches  of  river  bank  which  have  never  known  the 
sound  of  industry  would  become  great  shipyards,  rivaling 
those  of  Maine  in  the  palmy  days  of  American  shipping.  For- 
ests which  would  not  be  touched  for  years,  probably  ages, 
would  be  the  scenes  of  wondrous  industrial  development.  Pa- 
cific coast  products  which  otherwise  go  to  waste  or  find  sale 
at  prices  barely  sufficient  to  cover  cost  of  raising,  would  find 
sale  at  fair  profit  in  the  markets  of  the  world." 

One  course  or  the  other  the  United  States  government,  in 
justice  to  itself  and  its  business  men,  should  adopt  and  con- 
sistently follow.  Ordain  either  to  have  or  not  to  have  a  com- 
merce. Everyone  knows  that  to  become  a  great  commercial 
nation  a  merchant  marine  is  necessary,  and  for  a  merchant 
marine  ship-building  must  be  subsidized.  If  government  will 
not  protect  its  commerce,  it  is  better  so  to  declare,  and  let 
its  people  abandon  the  effort.  England  has  been  subsidizing 
ships  for  half  a  century,  and  is  doing  so  now.  The  policy  of 


300  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

the  United  States  has  been  different;  hence  while  England's 
shipping  interests  have  been  increasing  those  of  the  United 
States  have  been  decreasing.  Hitherto  the  lakes,  rivers,  and 
railways,  the  last  with  their  tariff  discriminations  of  all  the 
traffic  will  stand,  and  their  subsidized  rascalities  protected  by 
the  government  to  the  ruin  of  the  people  and  the  country, 
have  developed  abnormally  certain  sections  of  the  United 
States,  and  left  other  sections  undeveloped. 

The  acquisition  of  a  line  of  tropical  islands  extending  half 
way  round  the  earth,  from  the  West  Indies  to  China,  with  an 
interoceanic  canal,  and  an  air-line  double-track  railway  from 
Kansas  City  to  San  Diego,  owned  and  operated  by  the  gov- 
ernment on  a  basis  of  running  expenses  or  less,  or  both  gov- 
ernment canal  and  government  railway,  would  revolutionize 
the  commerce  of  the  world.  All  such  work  done  by  the  gov- 
ernment for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  as  cheap  postage,  a  parcel 
post,  the  midcontinent  desert  bridged  by  a  railway,  reclama- 
tion of  desert  lands  by  irrigating  systems,  if  operated  even  at 
a  loss,  comes  back  to  the  public  a  thousand  fold  in  the  form 
of  increased  revenue  and  wealth. 

The  president  seemed  fully  alive  to  the  requirements  of 
commerce  in  connection  with  the  new  acquisitions.  Of  com- 
munication with  the  Hawaiian  islands,  in  his  message  of  De- 
cember, 1898,  he  says:  "  The  annexation  of  Hawaii  and  the 
changed  relations  of  the  United  States  to  Cuba,  Porto  Rico, 
and  the  Philippines,  resulting  from  the  war,  compel  the 
prompt  adoption  of  a  maritime  policy  by  frequent  steamship 
communication  encouraged  by  the  United  States  under  the 
American  flag  with  the  newly  acquired  islands.  Spain  fur- 
nished to  its  colonies,  at  an  annual  cost  of  about  two  million 
dollars,  steamship  lines  communicating  with  a  portion  of  the 
world's  markets  as  well  as  with  trade  centres  of  the  home 
government.  The  United  States  will  not  undertake  to  do 
less.  It  is  our  duty  to  furnish  the  pepple  of  Hawaii  with  fa- 
cilities under  national  control  for  their  export  and  import 
trade.  It  will  be  conceded  that  the  present  situation  calls  for 
legislation  which  shall  be  prompt,  durable,  and  liberal." 

The  average  yearly  imports  and  exports  of  the  countries 
round  the  Pacific  prior  to  the  war  were  about  $2,000,000,000. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  during  the  twentieth  century  this  traffic 
will  be  increased  ten  or  twenty  fold.  During  the  ante-bellum 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  301 

period,  but  a  comparatively  small  portion  of  the  Asiatic  trade 
was  with  the  Pacific  United  States;  what  it  will  be  in  the  fut- 
ure, how  much  of  it  will  come  to  the  west  coast,  and  how 
much  go  to  the  east  and  to  Europe,  depend  upon  the  quality 
of  manhood  that  inhabits  these  shores  from  this  time  on. 
The  time  was  when  to  be  of  California  was  a  matter  of  pride, 
was  to  carry  wherever  one  went  the  halo  of  gold  and  com- 
merce and  romance.  This  was  before  the  merchants  of  San 
Francisco  were  ground  into  the  dust  beneath  the  iron  heel  of 
commercial  despotism,  before  the  American  government  lent 
its  aid  to  ruin  the  fairest  portion  of  its  possessions,  by  ad- 
vancing to  a  band  of  robbers  the  money  and  credit  to  monopo- 
lize the  fruits  of  industry,  for  a  full  quarter-century,  of  a  sec- 
tion which  at  that  very  moment  was  doing  more  than  all  the 
others  combined  to  sustain  the  government  credit  during  the 
crisis  of  civil  war,  by  pouring  into  the  Wall  street  coffers  a 
steady  stream  of  four  or  five  millions  of  gold  a  month,  which 
even  then  could  not  be  kept  below  from  150  to  250  per  cent 
premium  above  the  national  promises  to  pay. 

A  Boston  editor  writes:  "  Great,  however,  as  has  already 
been  the  effect  upon  the  west  of  the  war,  we  have  nevertheless 
seen  but  the  beginning  of  good  things.  We  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  think  of  the  east  as  the  maritime  section  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  west  as  the  agricultural  and  mining 
district.  But  there  are  unmistakable  signs  that  the  Pacific 
coast  of  the  North  American  continent  was  designed  as  the 
greatest  seat  of  commerce  the  world  has  ever  yet  attained. 
The  future  is,  of  course,  a  mystery,  but  if  anything  may  be 
safely  assumed,  it  is  that  the  Pacific  ocean  is  destined  to  be- 
come a  magnificent  highway  of  trade." 

"  All  commercial  nations  are  now  fighting  for  trade,''  says 
the  governor  of  Oregon  regarding  the  Philippines,  "and  in 
their  race  of  cupidity  and  inordinate  ambition  China  is  threat- 
ened with  partition.  We  need  the  business  of  these  islands. 
Exchange  of  products,  natural  and  artificial,  would  be  mutu- 
ally beneficial  to  them  and  to  us.  We  must  find  an  outlet  for 
the  surplus  product  of  our  fields  and  forests,  our  factories  and 
workshops;  we  must  share  on  equal  terms  with  all  other  na- 
tions the  opportunity  for  trade  in  the  Orient,  which  our 
possession  of  the  Philippine  islands  affords  us." 

With  its  past  record  for  aid  and  loyalty  to  the  federal  gov-. 


302  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

eminent,  and  the  certainty  of  a  brilliant  future,  a  future  such 
as  the  wildest  dreams  of  avarice  and  enterprise  have  never 
reached,  the  least  the  nation  should  do,  for  its  own  sake  and 
the  sake  of  the  Pacific  coast,  is  to  bridge  the  desert  with  one 
or  two  lines  of  transcontinental  railway,  owned  and  operated 
by  the  government,  on  a  basis  of  running  expenses  or  less,  and 
thus  besides  furnishing  itself  with  the  means  of  cheap  and 
rapid  transportation  for  its  mails,  its  troops,  and  its  munitions 
of  war,  superior  to  those  of  any  interoceanic  canal, — while 
bringing  nearer  the  two  sides  of  the  continent  and  shorten- 
ing the  distance  to  its  island  possessions,  at  the  same  time 
deliver  from  a  power  threatening  soon  to  become  greater  than 
itself  a  liberal  minded  and  patriotic  people.  Possibly  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Pacific  coast  are  expecting  too  much  in  the  way 
of  benefits  to  accrue  from  the  canal.  Like  all  good  things  it 
will  prove  a  benefit  if  they  bestir  themselves  to  make  a  proper 
use  of  it,  otherwise  not.  Conditions  there  may  be  under  which 
it  will  prove  to  the  American  Pacific  coast  a  disadvantage. 
First  of  all,  it  is  very  clearly  to  be  seen  that  unless  we  have  a 
merchant  marine  of  our  own,  we  had  better  have  no  canal, 
as  the  ships  of  other  nations  will  come  in  and  carry  off  our 
commerce.  When  England  and  Germany  can  pick  up  their 
traffic  in  China  and  carry  it  through  the  canal  to  their  own 
door,  they  will  scarcely  trouble  themselves  to  call  at  any  Ameri- 
can port,  either  on  the  Pacific  or  on  the  Atlantic  side.  The 
internal  commerce  of  the  country  can  no  longer  be  carried  on 
in  ox  carts,  nor  by  railway  monopolies  charging  ox-cart  freight 
rates.  And  if  a  New  Pacific  is  ever  to  take  its  proper  place 
in  the  world,  there  must  be  some  shorter  way  opened  into  it 
from  the  Atlantic  than  round  Cape  Horn. 

A  great  commercial  corporation  for  the  past  fifty  years  has 
been  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  company,  its  operations  now 
extending  half  round  the  world,  from  New  York  to  Hongkong 
via  Panama,  San  Francisco,  and  Yokohama.  The  company 
was  established  in  1847  under  an  act  of  congress  authorizing 
the  secretary  of  the  navy  to  contract  for  a  steamer  mail  service 
for  ten  years,  sailing  once  in  two  months  or  oftener,  from 
New  York  via  Charleston  Savannah  and  Havana  to  Chagres, 
across  the  Isthmus  to  Panama,  and  thence  touching  at  San 
Diego,  Monterey,  and  San  Francisco  to  Astoria  Oregon,  thus 
bringing  the  two  great  seaboards  of  the  United  States  into 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  303 

closer  relationship  than  that  afforded  by  water  round  Cape 
Horn,  or  by  land  across  the  United  States. 

In  accordance  with  this  authorization  a  monthly  mail 
service,  at  a  yearly  compensation  of  $199,000,  was  awarded  to 
Arnold  Harris,  who  assigned  the  contract  to  William  H.  As- 
pinwall,  and  the  company  was  incorporated  with  a  capital 
stock  of  $400,000.  Three  steamships  were  built,  the  Cali- 
fornia, the  Panama,  and  the  Oregon,  and  sent  round  Cape 
Horn  to  take  their  places  in  the  line.  But  while  these  were 
on  the  way,  great  things  happened;  California  became  a  pos- 
session of  the  United  States,  the  construction  of  the  Panama 
railway  assumed  more  definite  shape,  a  treaty  with  Mexico 
gave  the  California  country  to  the  United  States,  and  the 
magnitude  of  the  gold  discoveries  in  the  foothills  of  the  Cali- 
fornia sierra  became  assured.  The  result  was  that  none  of 
these  steamships  touched  at  ports  on  the  Atlantic,  or  got  past 
San  Francisco  on  the  Pacific;  the  route  became  settled,  New 
York  to  Aspinwall,  and  Panama  to  San  Francisco,  stopping 
only  at  Acapulco  for  coal.  Opposition  lines  were  established 
at  various  times,  both  by  way  of  Panama  and  across  the  Isth- 
mus of  Nicaragua,  but  the  great  Pacific  Mail  continued  its 
course  and  dominated  transpacific  traffic  until  the  northern 
lines  were  established.  The  capital  stock  of  the  Pacific  Mail 
company  was  increased  first  to  $2,000,000,  then  to  $4,000,000, 
and  finally  to  $10,000,000. 

In  regard  to  the  prospects  and  possibilities  of  the  Pacific 
states,  Chauncey  Depew  said  before  an  audience  in  the  Audi- 
torium, Chicago:  "The  open  market  of  Japan  and  the  open 
markets  of  China  will  absorb  not  only  all  the  wheat  grown 
upon  the  Pacific  coast  but  all  it  can  possibly  produce.  Its 
markets  will  be  so  great  for  our  steel  rails,  our  machinery  and 
electrical  appliances,  and  our  agricultural  implements,  that 
with  a  merchant  marine  on  the  Pacific,  Oregon  Washington 
and  California  will  in  a  few  years  be  among  the  richest  and 
most  productive  states  of  the  union.  There  is  in  the  trade 
the  opening  of  a  new  field  for  labor  and  new  opportunities  for 
capital.  The  congestion  of  our  market  will  be  relieved,  causes 
of  panics  will  be  diminished,  the  fierce  competition  among  our- 
selves will  be  lessened,  the  farmers  of  the  west  and  the  middle 
west  and  of  the  northwest  will  find  themselves  better  able  to 
compete  in  the  markets  of  Europe  with  the  Argentines,  Kus- 


304  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

sia,  Egypt,  and  India.  The  wheat  of  the  Pacific  coast  will  go 
to  the  Orient  instead  of  to  Liverpool.  Civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity and  orderly  liberty  following  the  flag  will  bestow  in- 
estimable benefits  upon  distant  semi-barbarous  and  alien  races. 
There  will  be  to  our  own  people  reciprocal  benefits  which 
come  from  a  thousand  millions  instead  of  70,000,000  of  peo- 
ple waiting  the  products  of  our  soil,  the  results  of  our  agri- 
culture, the  outflow  of  our  mines,  and  the  surplus  of  our  mills, 
our  factories,  and  our  furnaces." 

Each  side  of  the  Pacific  is  the  natural  markets  for  every 
other  side;  all  the  islands  give  products  to  the  mainland  and 
receive  products  in  return.  The  disadvantages  of  the  Pacific 
coast  in  distance  from  markets  and  cost  of  transportation  are 
now  in  a  way  to  be  obviated  by  nearer  consumers  and  recipro- 
cal trade.  The  wheat  which  California  has  so  largely  shipped 
to  European  and  other  distant  ports  will  go  to  China,  where 
the  entire  product  of  20,000,000  bushels,  and  many  times 
more  from  the  other  wheat  producing  states  west  of  the  Eocky 
mountains,  will  find  consumption  as  flour.  Before  the  war 
flour,  oil,  cotton  cloth,  and  machinery,  were  sent  to  the  Philip- 
pines from  the  United  States;  with  the  occupation  of  those 
islands  by  Americans  and  the  development  of  new  industries 
new  wants  will  be  created,  and  a  thousand  things  now  not 
thought  of  will  be  sent  thither  from  the  Pacific  coast. 

California  sends  canned  salmon,  canned  and  dried  fruits, 
and  wheat,  to  England,  flour  to  China,  fresh  and  dried  fruit 
and  wines  to  the  midcontinent  and  eastern  United  States, 
quicksilver  and  mining  machinery  to  Mexico,  and  eastern  raw 
material  and  manufactured  articles  to  every  port  of  the  Pa- 
cific. Oregon  sends  wheat  to  England  and  flour  to  China. 
With  her  moist  air  and  fertile  soil  she  may  double  her  wealth 
every  twelve  years.  Washington  sends  flour,  lumber,  and  a 
long  list  of  her  own  manufactures  to  Alaska,  Japan,  and 
China.  Connected  with  the  university  of  California  is  a  col- 
lege of  commerce,  which  will  prove  an  active  influence  in  the 
development  of  the  New  Pacific,  not  only  in  the  way  of  pre- 
paring students  for  mercantile  pursuits,  but  in  the  study  and 
solution  of  those  economic  questions  upon  the  lines  of  which 
the  commerce  of  the  Pacific  is  destined  henceforth  to  be 
evolved. 

From  San  Francisco  are  now  established  lines  to  every 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  303 

quarter,  the  northern  and  southern  American  coasts,  Asia, 
Australia  and  all  of  the  more  important  islands.  For  the 
Philippine  trade  are  appointed  two  new  steamships,  the 
counterparts  of  the  historic  St  Louis  and  St  Paul.  To  San 
Francisco  should  be  transferred  the  tobacco  and  cigar  trade 
of  the  Philippines  which  once  made  Barcelona  one  of  the 
richest  cities  of  Spain.  In  China  and  Japan  and  in  all  the 
islands  the  Manila  cigar  is  extensively  used.  Likewise  hemp 
and  sugar  San  Francisco  will  consume  in  quantities,  and  pass 
on  through  her  portals,  from  the  old  east  to  the  new,  the  rich 
stuff's  of  famed  Cathay.  Here  will  always  be  the  chief  ren- 
dezvous of  government  troops  destined  for  the  Pacific. 

By  way  of  San  Diego,  on  the  steamers  of  the  California 
and  Oriental  company,  the  gulf  states  send  cotton,  and  the 
midcontinent  and  Pacific  states  flour,  beer,  mining  machinery, 
agricultural  implements,  and  other  manufactured  products  of 
these  parts,  to  Japan  and  China.  The  return  cargo  consists 
of  general  oriental  goods  for  the  same  and  other  sections  of 
the  United  States.  This  is  the  natural  and  best  route, — to  be 
still  further  shortened  in  the  near  future  by  a  short  cut  direct 
from  San  Diego  to  Yuma, — between  the  midcontinent,  gulf, 
and  southern  Pacific  states  to  the  Hawaiian  islands  and  the 
Far  East. 

To  his  government,  in  1898,  James  Longstreet,  United 
States  commissioner  of  railroads,  reports:  "  With  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico  producing  tropical  products,  our  annual  demand 
for  which  is  to  the  extent  of  $225,000,000,  about  one-third 
of  our  entire  imports,  will  in  a  few  years  be  entirely  furnished 
from  these  new  possessions,  and  our  own  products  taken  in 
exchange,  while  now  our  exports  to  these  islands,  I  believe, 
do  not  exceed  $15,000,000  annually.  Heretofore,  under  their 
former  control,  every  effort  has  been  made  to  discourage  busi- 
ness intercourse  with  Americans.  Under  the  new  order  of 
things  in  these  islands  every  effort  will  be  made  to  encour- 
age trade  with  us,  and  when  the  population  is  doubled  in 
numbers  and  is  increased  ten  times  in  ability  to  produce  and 
consume,  which  is  not  an  unreasonable  anticipation,  what 
then  will  our  trade  amount  to?  It  is  almost  impossible  to 
imagine.  Less  than  35,000,000  British  colonists  in  Austral- 
asia exchange  products  to  the  amount  of  $650,000,000  an- 
nually. It  is  only  reasonable  to  suppose  that  in  a  few  years 


306  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

the  trade  with  our  new  possessions  will  fully  equal  if  not  sur- 
pass this,  and  the  United  States  must  control  the  bulk. 
Furthermore,  the  vast  volume  of  wheat  and  other  cereals  which 
now  find  their  way  from  the  middle  western  grain  prairies  to 
Asia  and  other  countries  of  the  western  hemisphere  via  the 
Atlantic  seaports  will,  in  a  very  few  years,  reach  these  same 
destinations  via  the  Pacific  seaports,  and  with  this  changed 
condition  will  come  vastly  increased  tonnage  and  revenues  to 
all  the  transcontinental  lines.  It  may  be  timely  just  now  to 
suggest  that  the  government  construct  and  operate  a  first- 
class  double-track  railroad  from  Kansas  City  to  San  Diego  by 
air-line  route.  This  will  open  the  shortest  line,  measured  by 
the  map,  from  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia  to  the 
coast  and  along  the  coal  fields  of  the  east  and  west  this  side  of 
the  Eocky  mountains,  and  making  the  most  direct  line  from 
cur  great  commercial  centres  to  the  Sandwich  islands  and  the 
Philippines.  This  with  other  lines  now  working  overland 
may  prove  ample  for  the  wants  of  commerce  to  the  Pacific 
coast  and  the  Orient,  holding  trade  and  travel  within  our 
borders  pending  the  experiment  of  a  canal  through  the 
isthmus. 

Nearly  one-half  of  the  total  foreign  trade  of  both  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  is  with  tropical  countries. 
In  this  respect  the  states  of  the  Pacific  seaboard  of  North 
America  are  specially  favored,  as  holding  the  key  to  the  trop- 
ical trade  of  the  Pacific,  that  is  in  being  so  situated  as  best  to 
supply  all  products  of  the  temperate  zone,  and  all  American 
manufactured  products.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  our  obtain- 
ing all  the  foreign  trade  we  desire  if  we  use  ordinary  industry 
and  intelligence  to  obtain  it.  We  must  simply  manufacture 
the  goods  that  foreigners  require,  and  sell  them  at  prices  and 
under  conditions  more  attractive  to  the  buyer  than  those 
which  our  competitors  can  or  will  offer.  If  we  sit  down  and 
wait  for  trade,  or  even  hoist  our  flag  expecting  trade  to  follow 
it,  we  shall  be  disappointed.  No  trade  will  follow  the  flag 
without  due  action  and  consideration,  particularly  the  carry- 
ing trade.  We  have  so  long  been  accustomed  to  remain 
quietly  at  home,  and  have  foreign  goods  brought  to  us  and  our 
own  carried  away  in  foreign  bottoms,  even  prospering  under 
this  narrow  policy,  that  we  do  not  sufficiently  realize  the 
change  incumbent  upon  us  to  make  under  the  new  conditions, 


COMMERCE  OP  THE  PACIFIC  307 

and  that  we  must  now  do  our  own  carrying  or  give  up 
business. 

Every  means  should  be  employed  by  the  merchants  and 
manufacturers  of  the  United  States  to  introduce  their  goods, 
not  upon  the  coast  only,  but  into  the  interior  of  China,  where 
the  competition  is  less  and  the  possibilities  limitless.  The 
native  merchants  are  of  course  opposed  to  this,  preferring  to 
keep  the  business  in  their  own  hands;  and  they  have  many 
advantages,  knowing  the  country,  the  people,  and  the  goods 
required.  But  until  the  foreign  manufacturer  can  himself 
carry  his  goods  direct  to  the  consumer,  or  to  the  provincial 
dealer,  and  explain  their  nature  and  use,  there  will  never  be  a 
very  large  demand.  Said  the  Shanghai  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce in  their  report,  speaking  of  trade  with  the  Chinese: 
"  They  will  not  advance  towards  foreigners  to  seek  their  trade 
until  foreigners  have  pressed  it  on  them.  Foreigners  must 
provide  the  means  of  bringing  different  parts  of  the  empire 
into  close  communication;  they  must  also  to  a  certain  extent 
create  the  wants  which  they  wish  to  supply,  by  offering  their 
goods  and  introducing  them  to  the  customers.  Commerce 
everywhere  requires  to  be  energetically  pushed  to  be  success- 
ful, and  this  is  particularly  true  of  the  trade  in  foreign  manu- 
factures in  China.  Though  the  Chinese  are  themselves  in- 
capable of  originating  any  such  improvements,  they  are  very 
ready  to  avail  themselves  of  it  when  provided  for  them.  But 
the  spirit  of  enterprise  is  all  on  the  side  of  the  foreigners,  and 
the  onus  of  every  forward  movement  in  commerce  must  nec- 
essarily rest  on  them."  This  was  written  more  especially  for 
the  benefit  of  Englishmen,  but  it  is  equally  good  advice  for 
Americans,  and  applies  no  less  to  all  the  countries  round  the 
Pacific  than  to  China. 

Permanent  exhibition  buildings  at  all  the  principal  Pacific 
ports,  American,  Australian,  and  Asiatic,  where  samples  of 
United  States  products  and  machinery  could  be  seen  and  ex- 
amined would  be  of  the  greatest  advantage.  Neither  the 
Chinaman  nor  the  Spanish  American  is  satisfied  with  circu- 
lars, or  any  kind  of  printed  or  pictured  descriptions;  they 
like  to  see  the  thing  itself,  and  understand  it.  The  Chinese 
are  shrewd  traders,  and  look  thoroughly  into  men  and  things 
before  parting  with  their  money. 

Our  Pacific  coast  merchants  and  manufacturers  may  profit- 


308  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

ably  take  a  lesson  from  the  Germans  in  commercial  methods, 
more  especially  in  regard  to  their  dealings  with  South  Amer- 
ica, which  have  trebled  within  the  past  six  years.  Chambers 
of  commerce  were  opened  by  them  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Buenos 
Ayres,  and  Montevideo,  while  exhibits  were  made  at  home  of 
the  wrought-iron  and  other  industries  of  South  America. 
Every  body  knows  that  commercial  relations  once  established 
continue  and  grow  under  favorable  conditions;  sales  of  one 
article  lead  to  sales  of  another,  and  thus  we  see  American 
barbed  wire  sent  to  Japan  by  German  exporters,  who  are  able 
to  buy  it  in  the  United  States  cheaper  than  they  can  make  it. 
In  their  trade  theories  and  practice  the  Germans  exercise  their 
characteristic  thoroughness.  They  are  as  skilful  in  the  inven- 
tion of  new  methods,  as  they  are  persistent  in  carrying  them 
out,  and  tenacious  in  holding  trade  when  they  get  it.  It  'is 
interesting  to  read  what  the  French  consul  at  Hongkong  says 
of  them:  "  As  soon  as  German  commercial  travelers  land  they 
begin  to  study  the  language;  a  slight  knowledge  obtained, 
they  undertake  with  unequaled  persistency  to  persuade  some 
native  merchant  to  give  them  a  trial  order.  As  soon  as  the 
goods  arrive,  they  visit  their  client,  and  if  he  makes  any  com- 
plaint they  assure  him  that  the  fault  or  error  can  be  readily 
corrected  or  avoided  in  the  next  order;  if  necessary,  they 
finally  make  a  considerable  reduction  in  the  amount  of  the 
bill.  AVhen  the  day  of  payment  arrives,  another  visit  is  made. 
This  time  the  purchaser  is  told  he  need  not  press  himself  to 
settle  the  whole  account;  a  partial  payment  will  suffice  if  he 
is  willing  to  give  a  new  order.  If  the  client  consents  he  is 
trapped.  Although  the  merchandise  may  be  inferior  to 
French  or  English  makes,  it  offers  to  the  dealer  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  cheaper  prices  and  greater  profits.  The  consumer 
becomes  accustomed  to  it  and  hesitates  to  pay  the  higher  price 
for  the  better  article.  Thus,  at  the  expense  of  many  apparent 
concessions  and  much  hard  labor,  relatively  small  however  in 
proportion  to  the  results,  the  market  is  opened  to  German 
goods.  It  is  afterwards  comparatively  easy  to  enlarge  it." 
And  thus  the  United  States  consul  at  Hiogo  writes:  "It  is 
probably  true  that  the  German  exporter  understands  the  na- 
tive taste  better  than  any  other.  The  markets  here  are  full  of 
small  wares  from  Germany,  put  up  in  attractive  style  and  in 
small  quantities  to  find  ready  sale.  Another  point  in  favor  of 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  309 

German  exporters  is  the  fact  that  they  do  not  confine  them- 
selves to  the  quick  and  ready  methods  of  others,  but  stay  upon 
the  ground  until  they  get  the  trade.  It  would  be  well  for 
Americans  to  note  a  little  more  closely  the  fact  that  the 
markets  of  the  east  cannot  be  obtained  entirely  by  wide-awake 
methods,  but  that  much  patient  and  persistent  effort  is  re- 
quired." 

The  reports  from  other  United  States  consulates  as  to  the 
methods  which  might  be  employed  by  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers for  increasing  their  business  in  the  various  parts 
of  the  world  are  not  without  interest.  Says  the  consul  at 
Japan:  "  Trade  is  not  nearly  as  large  as  it  might  be  if  our 
manufacturers  in  the  United  States  would  give  the  attention 
to  Japan  that  they  do  to  the  overflowing  markets  at  home." 
From  Honduras:  "  American  manufacturers  could  probably 
increase  their  trade  by  making  goods  of  special  styles  and  pat- 
terns to  suit  the  trade."  From  the  consul  at  Bolivia:  "  This 
is  where  the  Americans  fail,  or  rather  where  they  have  never 
taken  hold;  to  speak  Spanish  and  reside  among  the  people  are 
indispensable."  From  the  consul  at  Mexico:  "The  manu- 
facturers and  merchants  of  the  United  States  do  not  as  thor- 
oughly understand  the  demands  of  this  trade  as  those  of  Ger- 
many, France,  Great  Britain,  and  Spain."  New  South  Wales: 
"In  boots  and  shoes  the  business  can  be  largely  increased  if 
the  manufacturers  will  pay  more  attention  to  the  peculiarities 
of  the  trade  here."  New  Zealand :  "  We  should  have  faster 
and  more  modern  vessels  plying  between  San  Francisco  and 
these  colonies,  and  we  should  subsidize  our  sailing  vessels 
trading  to  Australasian  ports,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  reduce 
the  freight  charges  on  American  imports  to  the  colonies,  and 
thus  encourage  trade  which  cannot  otherwise  be  alienated 
from  the  British  manufacturers.  I  am  confident  if  a  generous 
and  intelligent  effort  were  made  in  the  way  of  studying  and 
cultivating  the  tastes  and  peculiar  requirements  of  the  peo- 
ple, we  would  in  a  few  years  divide  a  much  larger  proportion 
of  the  trade  with  England  than  we  do  now."  Consul  at  Mel- 
bourne: "  To  increase  the  business  relations  between  the  two 
countries,  the  best  way  would  be  for  some  of  our  manufact- 
urers to  establish  agencies  and  carry  stock  here."  From  our 
consul  at  Victoria:  "  The  trade  between  this  colony  and  the 
United  States  is  not  by  any  means  what  it  should  be,  and 


310  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

it  depends  solely  upon  our  manufacturers  to  increase  it." 
From  Tientsin:  "If  our  merchants  would  provide  for  sam- 
ple warehouses  at  Hongkong,  Shanghai,  and  Tientsin,  and 
send  good,  live,  and  responsible  Americans  to  manage  the 
same,  they  would  be  astonished  at  the  increase  in  their  ex- 
ports. The  Germans  are  preparing  to  adopt  this  method,  and, 
unless  checkmated,  will  make  sad  inroads  on  the  trade  we 
now  have.  They  are  also  getting  ready  to  publish  a  paper  in 
the  Chinese  language,  especially  to  advertise  their  products." 
From  our  consul  at  Ecuador:  "  With  proper  effort  our  mer- 
chants could  do  a  great  trade  with  this  country."  From  the 
consul  at  Colombia:  "  Branch  houses  should  be  established 
in  these  countries,  thus  assimilating  the  home  market  with 
the  foreign."  From  our  consul  at  Peru:  "Drummers  with 
samples  should  be  sent  round  in  lieu  of  the  mass  of  circulars 
and  catalogues." 

Strange  as  it  may  appear,  the  merchants  of  Portland  and  of 
Astoria  differ  as  to  where  should  be  the  entrepot  of  commerce 
in  Oregon,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  by  the  sea,  and  convenient 
to  sea-going  vessels,  or  at  the  head  of  navigation,  in  the  heart 
of  the  country  that  furnishes  the  supplies.  Astoria  thinks 
she  should  be  the  New  York  and  Portland  the  Albany, 
whereas  in  her  own  eyes  Portland  is  Paris  and  Astoria  Havre. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  grain  and  flour  ships  load  at  both  places, 
naturally  preferring  the  one  nearest  the  sea,  other  things 
being  equal,  but  ready  to  go  where  the  cargo  may  be  obtained 
if  necessary. 

Attempts  to  send  one  of  the  products  of  Oregon  to  sea  with- 
out a  ship  proved  rather  unsuccessful.  Rafting  logs  and 
boards  from  the  Columbia  down  the  California  coast  was  pleas- 
ant and  profitable  until  storms  came  and  broke  them  up, 
scattering  the  lumber. 

Washington  is  especially  adapted  to  maritime  commerce, 
owing  to  the  forests  and  inland  waters  which  afford  rare  facili- 
ties for  shipping  and  ship-building.  Unite  to  these  forests 
those  of  British  Columbia  and  Alaska,  and  we  have  here  more 
timber  suitable  for  spars  and  ship-building  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  world.  The  same  may  be  said  as  to  fisheries,  while  the 
agricultural  resources  of  Washington  are  greater  than  is 
generally  known.  Washington  sends  to  Alaska  miners'  sup-* 
plies;  to  Vladivostok  general  merchandise;  spars  and  railroad 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  311 

ties  to  Hongkong,  Shanghai,  and  Nagasaki;  flour  to  China  and 
Japan;  and  lumber  to  nearly  every  Pacific  port  of  North  and 
South  America  and  Asia.  Puget  sound  imports  rose  from 
$95,441  in  1883  to  $7,066,131  in  1897;  exports  in  1883 
$1,770,219,  in  1897  $11,864,925,  the  latter  consisting  largely 
of  lumber,  flour,  wheat,  and  other  cereals.  Ships  from. 
Seattle  go  to  Australia  with  lumber,  returning  with  coal  for 
the  Hawaiian  islands,  sugar  from  there  to  San  Francisco,  and 
back  to  Washington  in  ballast.  Again,  lumber  to  South 
America,  guano  thence  to  Europe,  and  back  in  ballast. 

Seattle  and  Tacoma  send  to  the  Hawaiian  islands  lime  for 
the  sugar  refineries,  flour,  beer,  bran,  grain,  hay,  lumber,  coal 
for  the  government,  and  general  merchandise,  and  receive  in 
return  sugar,  coffee,  fruit,  tea,  silk,  rice,  and  general  Asiatic 
goods;  to  Japan  and  China  these  favored  cities  send  flour, 
beer,  oil,  and  stoves,  and  even  cotton  has  been  sent  north  by 
rail  from  Alabama  to  take  this  route  to  the  Orient.  Three 
competing  transcontinental  railways  come  to  Bellingham  bay 
and  Puget  sound;  the  Canada  Pacific,  the  Great  Northern, 
and  the  Northern  Pacific.  Coastwise  railways  also  extend  in 
every  direction. 

British  Columbia  depends  chiefly  on  the  United  States  for 
a  food  supply,  while  manufactured  articles  are  brought  from 
eastern  Canada  and  England.  About  one-quarter  of  the  flour 
supply  comes  from  Manitoba;  canned  meats  from  the  United 
States,  except  mutton  and  sheep  tongue,  which  are  brought 
from  Australia.  Though  less  in  price,  Canadian  hams  and 
bacon  are  not  so  well  liked  as  the  American;  oats,  corn,  barley, 
and  hay  are  supplied  by  the  United  States.  In  fruit  the  Aus- 
tralian competition  with  the  American  is  light.  Of  manufact- 
ured goods  England  and  eastern  Canada  supply  hats,  caps, 
woollen  and  cotton  clothing,  and  general  drygoods,  while  the 
United  States  furnishes  heavy  bleached  cottons,  ginghams, 
and  shirtings.  Agricultural  implements  and  mining  machin- 
ery come  from  the  United  States,  and  cutlery  from  England. 
The  province  is  largely  populated  by  the  English,  who  in  the 
main  prefer  their  own  goods;  nevertheless  it  is  said  that  the 
sale  of  American  goods  can  be  largely  increased  by  the  due 
exercise  of  intelligence  and  energy. 

The  Asiatic  steamers  of  the  Canada  Pacific  railway  carry 
proportionately  fewer  Pacific  coast  products  than  the  lines 
11 


312  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

from  the  United  States,  and  the  British  Columbian  imports 
from  China  and  Japan  have  not  as  yet  assumed  very  large  pro- 
portions. Most  of  the  transpacific  traffic  from  Vancouver, 
which  is  very  large  and  constantly  increasing,  consists  of 
European  goods,  and  merchandise  from  the  eastern  and  mid- 
dle United  States.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  Puget  sound 
lines,  and  in  fact  of  all  the  lines;  but  with  an  established  and 
growing  trade  with  eastern  Asia,  thousands  of  new  industries 
will  spring  up  all  along  the  American  Pacific  seaboards. 

In  transpacific  voyages  the  northern  lines  claim  advantage 
in  distance,  but  this  is  offset  by  the  cold,  drizzling  weather 
encountered.  In  truth,  so  far  as  physical  conditions  are  con- 
cerned there  is  little  to  choose,  each  latitude  having  its  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages.  Where  there  are  so  many  fine  lines, 
and  from  all  the  principal  ports,  one  would  scarcely  care  to 
spend  much  time  running  up  and  down  the  coast  in  making  a 
selection.  All  sea-voyages  are  more  or  less  monotonous,  but 
all  need  not  be  dreary,  and  the  monotony  of  comfort  seems 
usually  to  shorten  the  time.  Few  care  to  follow  a  far  north- 
ern circle,  where  the  weather  is  always  cold  and  stormy,  even 
though  the  distance  be  less,  and  even  though  icebergs  cannot 
find  their  way  through  the  shallow  Bering  strait;  for  the 
greater  safety  and  comfort  of  the  more  southern  route  will 
leave  one  with  fully-  as  much  time  at  his  disposal  on  this 
earth  in  the  end.  From  Vancouver  to  Yokohama  the  steam- 
ship time  is  three  days  less  than  from  San  Francisco  to  Yoko- 
hama, which  is  fourteen  days,  more  or  less.  But  from  San 
Francisco  or  San  Diego  the  voyage  is  pleasanter,  especially 
with  a  stop  at  the  Hawaiian  islands. 

Alaska  has  commerce  with  Canada  and  the  principal  coast 
cities  as  far  south  as  San  Francisco,  receiving  supplies  of  every 
kind  and  sending  out  fish,  furs,  and  metals.  A  sale  of  seal- 
skins is  held  in  London  every  year,  at  which  as  the  supply 
becomes  less  the  prices  are  advanced.  A  year's  catch  off  Cop- 
per islands,  on  the  Siberian  coast,  was  represented  by  a  cargo 
of  bear,  seal,  and  other  skins  from  Petropaulovski  valued  at 
$1,000,000.  Whalers  are  still  found  in  these  waters,  the  catch 
running  in  value  from  $100,000  to  $200,000  each  vessel  in 
bone  and  oil.  Vladivostock  has  had  commercial  intercourse 
with  Portland  and  Vancouver  for  many  years. 

Russian  trade  with  China  began  at  an  early  date,  three  cara- 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  313 

vans  reaching  Peking  during  1658-77.  A  Russian  embassy 
under  Eberhard  Ysbrand  Ides  was  sent  by  the  tsar  to  Peking 
in  1692,  and  in  1715  certain  Russian  prisoners  were  permitted 
to  settle  in  Peking,  an  envoy  being  sent  four  years  later  by 
Peter  the  Great  to  establish  commercial  regulations  between 
the  two  empires.  By  treaty  of  1727,  one  caravan  between 
Novgorod  and  Peking  each  way  might  be  freighted  once  in 
three  years,  but  after  twenty  years  trial  the  long  journeys 
proved  unprofitable,  and  were  less  frequently  made.  Russia's 
exports  now  amount  to  about  $400,000,000  per  annum,  and 
imports  a  little  less,  the  former  consisting  of  grain,  hemp, 
eggs,  cotton  goods,  and  iron  ware,  principally  to  Asiatic  coun- 
tries, and  the  latter,  raw  cotton,  silk,  and  jute,  and  the  manu- 
factures of  iron. 

Though  the  Russians  as  yet  have  not  a  large  commerce, 
being  restricted  in  their  manufactures  to  local  and  provincial 
supplies,  they  are  nevertheless  active  and  intelligent  traders, 
being  more  particularly  interested  in  Mongolia  and  north- 
western China.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  in  times 
past  Moscow  and  Tobolsk  merchants  have  been  able  to  send 
their  goods  by  caravans  to  Lanchau,  and  compete  with  Eng- 
lishmen in  that  city.  And  Russian  traders  are  gradually  gain- 
ing a  foothold  in  central  as  well  as  in  western  and  northern 
China.  They  understand  better  the  ways  of  the  Chinese; 
they  are  nearer  akin  to  them;  they  learn  their  language,  show 
outward  respect  to  their  superstitions  and  traditions,  and 
flatter  their  vanity  in  many  ways.  The  Russian  is  content  to 
advance  slowly;  he  is  shopkeeper  as  well  as  trader;  while  exer- 
cising rigid  self-denial  he  will  accept  small  profits.  Whatever 
his  opinion  may  be  with  regard  to  the  honesty,  morality,  re- 
ligion, civilization,  or  general  intelligence  of  the  foreigner, 
the  Chinaman  has  few  prejudices  and  no  patriotism  in  trade. 
With  him  the  fashion  never  changes;  but  the  cotton  which  is 
the  best  for  the  money  and  cuts  for  his  garment  with  the  least 
waste,  is  the  kind  he  will  buy.  He  is  shrewd  and  sensible  in 
his  economies;  he  likes  luxury,  but  is  content  with  poverty;  he 
seldom  buys  what  he  cannot  afford.  Articles  new  to  him  he 
is  ready  to  accept  if  economical  and  useful. 

Vladivostok,  the  terminus  of  the  transsiberian  railway  and 
commercial  metropolis  of  the  northernmost  Far  East,  is  the 
distributing  point  for  the  fertile  region  south  of  the  Amur. 


314  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

There  are  two  independent  and  two  subsidized  lines  of 
steamers  belonging  to  this  port.  Fortnightly  steamers  ply 
between  Vladivostok  and  Odessa,  and  close  steamship  com- 
munication is  had  with  all  the  ports  of  the  Pacific,  American 
Asiatic  and  Australian.  Korean  and  Chinese  colonists  form 
no  small  part  of  the  population,  the  latter  keeping  most  of  the 
shops,  and  having  a  monopoly  in  vegetables,  fish,  game,  and 
fruit.  The  Chinese  guild — or  shall  we  call  it  trust — is  here 
so  strong  as  to  drive  the  Russians  out  of  business  as  regards 
these  products;  their  business  is  transacted  in  four  large 
wooden  buildings  by  the  water  called  the  bazaar. 

The  Japanese  are  largely  employed  as  domestic  servants, 
but  they  also  have  shops  at  Vladivostok.  A  Korean  settle- 
ment near  Possiet  bay  supplies  Vladivostok  with  beef,  and 
several  Koreans  have  become  wealthy  furnishing  meat  and 
grain  to  the  Russian  forces  by  contract,  bringing  lean  cattle  to 
fatten  for  the  purpose  from  Chinese  Manchuria. 

Though  not  deficient  in  native  food  resources,  Siberia  will 
always  be  a  good  market  for  the  products  of  the  other  coun- 
tries around  the  Pacific,  and  this  more  especially  when  the 
mining  and  grazing  resources  are  more  fully  developed,  and 
the  country  filled  with  an  intelligent  and  thriving  popula- 
tion. The  same  may  be  said  of  all  those  parts  of  Russia  which 
are  accessible  to  the  Pacific  ocean  by  water-ways  or  land-ways; 
Russia  is  a  large  purchaser  of  whatever  she  lacks  and  desires. 
From  both  Europe  and  China  she  imports  enormous  quanti- 
ties of  tea,  textile  fabrics,  and  provisions,  and  now  that  she 
taps  the  Pacific  with  the  Siberian  railways,  the  products  of 
the  great  ocean  and  its  environs  should  be  always  for  sale  in 
all  the  chief  cities. 

Commerce  in  Japan  presents  several  anomalies.  First,  to 
those  who  buy  the  most  from  her  she  sells  the  least;  from 
those  who  sell  the  most  to  her  she  buys  tke  least.  American 
merchants  buy  from  her  five  times  as  much  as  they  sell  to  her; 
English  merchants  sell  to  her  five  times  as  much  as  they  buy 
from  her.  The  United  States  is  Japan's  largest  customer; 
next  is  France,  then  Hongkong,  China,  Great  Britain,  British 
India,  Canada,  and  Italy,  in  the  order  given,  the  purchases 
of  the  first  being  between  twenty  and  thirty  million  dollars 
per  annum,  and  those  of  the  last  named  one  million.  This 
shows  thrift  and  shrewdness  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese,  who 


COMMERCE  OF  THE  PACIFIC  315 

not  only  do  the  transportation  for  the  Americans  but  much  of 
their  manufacturing.  In  these  two  great  essentials  of  com- 
merce, the  Asiatics  are  outstripping  the  Americans,  owing  it 
would  seem  to  our  indifference  and  the  indifference  of  our 
government.  If  we  want  Japan  to  rule  the  Pacific,  indus- 
trially and  commercially,  all  we  need  do  is  to  leave  matters  to 
go  their  way  as  we  are  now  doing.  Japan  exports  to  all  na- 
tions a  little  more  than  she  imports,  the  total  amounts  being 
from  fifty-five  to  sixty  million  dollars  per  annum. 

The  Japanese  are  indefatigable  traders  along  the  Asiatic 
coast;  energetic  and  keen-witted,  they  penetrate  every  where, 
to  every  town  and  hamlet,  examining  the  resources  and  study- 
ing the  necessities  of  the  people,  creating  new  wants  while 
supplying  the  old  ones.  Packages  are  put  up  to  suit  the  kind 
of  transportation  before  them  on  reaching  a  distant  country, 
whether  they  are  to  go  by  the  Eskimo  kyak  or  the  Korean 
pony.  The  Japanese  trader  is  also  shrewd  enough  to  know 
that  he  can  always  do  better  by  conforming  to  the  interests 
of  his  customers,  and  not  give  people  cotton  24  inches  wide, 
when  their  clothes  cut  to  better  advantage  from  cloth  18 
inches  wide.  If  the  manufacturers  and  merchants  of  the 
United  States  desire  to  compete  for  the  Asiatic  trade,  they 
must  meet  the  Asiatic  on  his  own  ground,  and  become  as  skil- 
ful traders  as  they.  The  ability  of  the  Asiatic  to  undersell 
the  American,  so  far  as  cheaper  labor  is  concerned,  will  be- 
come less  as  time  goes  by,  and  the  cost  of  food  increases,  and 
the  demand  on  the  part  of  intelligent  and  skilled  labor  for 
better  living  and  fair  wages.  In  the  closer  traffic  and  more 
intimate  relations  springing  up  under  the  new  order  of  things, 
inequalities  of  work  and  wages,  of  prices  and  products,  will 
adjust  themselves,  both  sides  conducing  thereto;  the  Asiatic 
will  not  long  work  for  half  the  price  paid  the  American,  and 
the  American  cannot  always  obtain  twice  as  much  as  the 
Asiatic  receives  for  doing  the  same  work.  The  Asiatic  loves 
luxury  as  well  as  the  American,  and  this  taste  will  grow.  But 
even  now  money  enough  is  spent  for  demoralizing  gratifica- 
tions, as  is  seen  by  the  thousands  of  opium  dens  in  China,  and 
the  1,100  tobacco  shops  and  the  475  wine  shops  of  Seoul,  the 
capital  city  of  Korea  with  250,000  inhabitants.  While  never 
wholly  free  to  foreign  trade,  Japan  has  six  ports  open  to  for- 
eign commerce;  namely,  Yokohama,  Kobe,  Osaka,  Nagasaki, 


316  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

Hakodate,  and  Niigata,  and  thirteen  other  ports  where  for- 
eign trade  is  permitted  under  certain  restrictions,  but  only 
under  the  Japanese  flag. 

Railway  development  in  Japan  was  begun  by  the  English, 
who  have  always  maintained  the  lead  in  locomotives  and  sup- 
plies, but  of  late  the  Americans  are  gaining  ground.  Rail- 
road iron  which  formerly  was  sent  from  Belgium  and  Ger- 
many is  now  supplied  mostly  by  England  and  the  United 
States.  So  with  other  articles  in  iron.  Cotton-spinning 
machinery,  of  which  great  quantities  are  used,  comes  from 
England.  The  manufactures  of  Osaka,  the  cotton  spinning 
and  weaving  centre  in  Japan,  are  assuming  large  proportions, 
supplying  not  only  the  domestic  market,  but  finding  their 
way  all  along  down  the  Asiatic  coast.  In  supplying  paper- 
making,  electrical,  and  other  machinery,  the  United  States 
stands  first.  The  Japanese  buy  heavily  of  tobacco  in  Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky,  and  North  Carolina.  Butter  they  obtain 
in  California;  price  in  Japan  thirty  to  forty  cents  a  pound. 
United  States  trade  with  Japan  is  gradually  increasing,  the 
leading  items  sent  thither  being  raw  cotton,  pig  iron,  steel 
rails,  kerosene,  manufacturing  machinery,  and  locomotives. 
Export  duties  were  abolished  in  Japan  in  1898,  the  reduction 
of  2,500,000  yen  in  the  revenue  in  consequence  being  more 
than  compensated  for  by  the  increase  of  import  receipts.  The 
organization,  public  and  private,  known  as  the  Japan  Central 
Tea  association,  which  includes  the  tea-growers,  traders,  and 
exporters  of  Japan,  backed  by  the  Japanese  government,  is 
putting  forth  every  exertion  to  gain  the  ascendency  for  Jap- 
anese teas  throughout  the  world,  by  local  introduction  as  well 
as  marked  displays  in  exhibitions  of  products,  as  those  at 
Chicago,  Omaha,  and  Paris. 

If  America  is  a  menace  to  British  commerce,  Japan  is  a 
menace  to  American  commerce.  Less  than  three-quarters  of 
a  century  ago  the  Washington  government  sent  an  expedition 
to  the  Japanese  to  deliver  them  from  barbarism.  The  Wash- 
ington government  now  needs  an  expedition  from  Japan  to 
teach  it  how  to  spend  some  of  the  superfluous  wealth  of  the 
nation  for  the  benefit  of  the  nation. 

Japan  sends  to  the  United  States  tea,  raw  silks,  and  cocoons, 
some  $20,000,000  worth  a  year,  buying  in  return  some  two  or 
three  million  dollars  worth  of  coal  oil,  clocks,  and  like  articles. 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  317 

England  will  not  drink  Japan  tea,  but  will  sell  Japan  cotton, 
woollen,  and  iron  goods,  as  much  as  she  will  buy  and  pay  for. 

Profitable  commercial  relations  between  the  United  States 
and  Japan  have  scarcely  yet  begun.  America  has  done  much 
for  that  country,  and  can  do  more,  while  the  arts  and  indus- 
tries of  Asia  can  be  utilized  by  us  to  a  far  greater  extent  than 
has  yet  been  done.  The  mineral  and  agricultural  possibilities 
of  Japan  are  great,  while  in  some  of  the  arts  which  combine 
utility  and  beauty  they  are  superior  to  many  other  nations. 
Their  skill  in  pottery  and  porcelain,  their  lacquer  ware,  carv- 
ings, wall  papers,  textile  fabrics  and  embroidery  command  the 
admiration  of  the  world. 

There  are  some  12,000  Japanese  residents  in  Korea,  with 
250  mercantile  firms.  About  2,500  Chinese  live  at  Seoul  and 
Chemulpo,  and  there  are  a  few  American  and  European  resi- 
dents, some  of  them  doing  business  at  Nagasaki  and  Chemul- 
po. The  currency  before  the  China-Japan  war  was  a  copper 
cash,  500  to  the  dollar;  they  have  now  the  Japanese  yen,  and 
a  twenty  cent  piece,  the  unit  of  a  new  fractional  coinage;  also 
a  five  cent  nickel  and  a  five  cash  copper.  Banking  facilities 
are  given  to  Seoul  and  the  open  ports  by  the  Dai  Ichi  Gingo 
and  fifty-eight  banks  of  Japan. 

Probably  never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world,  not  in 
India  of  the  old  nor  in  America  of  the  new,  has  there  been 
such  a  devouring  hunger  manifested  for  other  men's  lands,  or 
such  fierce  rivalry  for  trade,  as  now  displays  itself  among  the 
nations  of  Europe,  with  regard  more  especially  to  China.  All 
the  great  and  small  of  the  world,  kings  lords  and  commons, 
those  who  affect  to  despise  trade  and  those  who  live  by  it,  all 
peem  to  have  turned  shopkeepers  in  a  large  or  small  way,  and 
go  prowling  around  the  world  like  ravenous  wolves,  eaten  up 
with  jealousy  lest  some  one  of  the  Christian  brotherhood 
should  snatch  from  the  heathen  a  bone  or  two  more  than  his 
alleged  share. 

Since  the  visit  of  the  first  trading  ship  from  the  United 
States  in  1784,  friendly  relations  with  China  have  been  contin- 
uous. Between  China  and  India  of  the  east,  and  the  western 
world  of  Europe,  and  around  the  Mediterranean,  commerce 
was  early  established,  mention  being  specially  made  in  the 
early  Chinese  writings  of  trade  with  Yatsin-Kwoh,  supposed 
to  be  Rome.  By  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the 


318  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

two  streams  of  traffic  had  marked  out  for  themselves  plain 
channels,  in  which  commerce  continued  to  flow  until  diverted 
by  the  discoveries  of  Vasco  da  Gama  and  Magellan. 

While  others  do  our  carrying;  while  an  American  steamer 
in  a  Chinese  port,  Hongkong  being  British,  is  a  rare  sight, 
yet  American  trade  in  China  is  constantly  increasing.  In  1893 
the  exports  of  Tientsin  to  the  United  States  were  940,871  taels; 
in  1894,  1,751,800  taels;  in  1895,  1,818,881  taels,  the  last 
amount  equivalent  to  2,425,000  Mexican  dollars.  The  United 
States  trade  with  China  was  in  1896  more  than  one-seventh 
of  the  whole,  exports  having  increased  126  per  cent  in  ten 
years,  and  being  a  third  more  than  those  of  Germany.  The 
cotton  cloth  sent  to  China  in  1897  amounted  to  $7,485,000,  or 
nearly  one-half  of  all  our  exports  of  cotton  cloth.  Next  to 
cotton  is  kerosene  oil,  the  Chinese  demand  for  which  has 
trebled  in  ten  years.  Yet,  United  States  trade  with  the  Orient 
is  not  what  it  should  be;  and  it  is  not  what  it  will  be  if  it  is 
given  the  attention  which  commerce  elsewhere  has  had  by  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  Not  long  since  our  imports  from 
Europe  were  largely  in  excess  of  exports;  now  we  send  there 
twice  as  much  as  we  get  from  there,  whereas  we  buy  from 
China  and  Japan  more  than  twice  as  much  as  we  sell  them. 
And  this  while  our  goods  are  the  goods  of  the  foremost  civili- 
zation, while  their  goods  are  the  goods  of  barbarism.  True, 
Europe  being  civilized  wants  the  articles  of  civilization;  but 
the  Asiatics  are  some  of  them  on  the  road  to  common-sense, 
and  when  four  hundred  millions  of  them  arrive  at  that  happy 
stage  American  factories  will  have  enough  to  do. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1898  China  experienced  more  rapid  and 
radical  changes  than  during  any  previous  period  of  her  exist- 
ence as  an  empire.  The  opening  of  inland  waters  to  foreign 
commerce,  and  the  granting  of  railway  and  other  concessions 
to  foreigners  on  liberal  terms  exercised  a  beneficial  influence 
against  the  inroads  of  the  all-absorbing  powers  of  Europe. 
The  volume  of  United  States  trade  in  China  was  increasing 
year  by  year  long  before  the  war  with  Spain,  until  in  1897  it 
was  second  only  to  that  of  England,  was  double  that  of  Ger- 
many, and  represented  fifteen  per  cent  of  the  total  of  all  na- 
tions. Cotton  has  displaced  kerosene  as  the  leading  article 
from  the  United  States,  as  a  cheap  and  acceptable  article  of 
food  supply  will  some  day  displace  cotton.  With  cotton  gar- 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  319 

ments  and  cheap  food,  two  hundred  millions  of  human  beings 
who  never  have  known  what  it  is  to  be  decently  clothed  and 
have  enough  to  eat  can  be  made  happy.  Wheat  flour  is  too 
costly  for  the  common  people.  Corn  as  a  life-sustainer  is  rel- 
atively half  the  cost  of  wheat,  and  by  eliminating  the  germ,  or 
oily  portion  of  the  grain,  in  its  manufacture,  the  meal  does  not 
damage  in  transit.  Now  let  an  acceptable  food  article  be  found 
at  half  the  cost  of  meal,  and  the  millions  of  Asia  may  be  fed. 
As  it  is  rice  remains  as  hitherto,  giving  the  hungry  poor  of 
China  more  of  vitality  for  the  money  than  any  thing  else  as 
yet  discovered. 

America's  influence  in  the  Far  East  has  been  largely  dis- 
interested, and  always  for  the  good  of  the  Asiatics  themselves, 
which  is  more  than  any  other  nation  can  truthfully  say.  We 
have  never  coveted  their  lands,  nor  forced  upon  them  any  of 
our  products  or  poisons.  We  were  the  first  to  show  to  Japan 
the  way  out  of  the  clouds  of  her  barbaric  environments,  and 
for  which  we  demanded  no  recompense,  neither  in  the  way 
of  advantages  in  trade  nor  in  the  old-time  harvest  of  souls. 
Neither  are  we  hungry  for  advantages  now.  We  have  some 
rights,  and  these  are  all  we  desire.  The  United  States  people 
need  new  markets  for  their  increasing  manufactures,  further 
use  for  their  mineral  and  agricultural  resources,  and  wider 
opportunities  for  their  engineers  and  artisans,  as  well  as  oc- 
cupation for  a  large  and  intelligent  industrial  population.  But 
all  this  they  are  satisfied  they  can  secure  without  wrongfully 
appropriating  the  lands,  or  in  any  wise  subverting  the  rights  of 
another.  They  have  given  freely  of  their  own  lands.  No 
fraud  or  diplomacy,  or  spheres  of  influence,  or  wrigglings  and 
wranglings  were  necessary  for  the  Dutchman,  the  Frenchman, 
or  the  Irishman  to  find  his  way  into  the  United  States.  And 
there  is  too  much  of  this  country  still  unoccupied  to  permit 
the  indulgence  of  an  inordinate  craving  as  yet  for  any  part 
of  China. 

All  the  European  powers  are  eager  to  lend  money  to  the 
Chinese  government,  and  thus  obtain  a  mortgage  on  the  coun- 
try and  an  excuse  for  further  intermeddling.  Russia  is  an 
Asiatic  as  well  as  a  European  power,  and  a  borrower  rather 
than  a  lender,  securing  her  looted  lands  in  China  by  an  ortho- 
dox title  and  then  improving  them.  Thus  Russia  is  now  in- 
debted to  France  for  $400,000,000,  spent  on  the  transsiberian 


320  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

railway,  and  is  willing  to  borrow  more  wherever  she  can.  All 
of  her  tropical  ports,  where  is  controlled  nearly  half  of  her 
foreign  commerce,  England  opens  to  the  people  of  other  na- 
tions upon  the  same  terms  as  to  her  own  people.  This  policy 
is  in  direct  opposition  to  that  of  the  continental  powers,  who 
always  seek  preferential  advantages,  each  for  its  own  people, 
wherever  they  have  been  able  to  obtain  a  footing  in  a  foreign 
land. 

Said  the  president  in  his  message  to  congress:  "  In  this  re- 
lation, as  showing  the  volume  and  value  of  our  exchanges  with 
China,  and  the  peculiarly  favorable  conditions  which  exist 
for  their  expansion  in  the  normal  course  of  trade,  I  refer  to 
the  communication  addressed  to  the  speaker  of  the  house  of 
representatives  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  on  the  14th 
of  last  June,  with  its  accompanying  letter  of  the  secretary  of 
state,  recommending  an  appropriation  for  a  commission  to 
study  the  commercial  and  industrial  conditions  in  the  Chinese 
empire  and  report  as  to  the  opportunities  for,  and  obstacles 
to  the  enlargement  of  markets  in  China  for  the  raw  products 
and  manufactures  of  the  United  States.  Action  was  not  taken 
thereon  during  the  late  session.  I  cordially  urge  that  the  rec- 
ommendation receive  at  your  hands  the  consideration  which 
its  importance  and  timeliness  merit.  Meanwhile,  there  may 
be  just  ground  for  disquietude  in  view  of  the  unrest  and  re- 
vival of  the  old  sentiment  of  opposition  and  prejudice  to  alien 
people  which  pervades  certain  of  the  Chinese  provinces.  As 
in  the  case  of  the  attacks  upon  our  citizens  in  Scechuan  and  at 
Kutien  in  1885,  the  United  States  minister  has  been  instructed 
to  secure  the  fullest  measure  of  protection,  both  local  and  im- 
perial, for  any  menaced  American  interest,  and  to  demand  in 
case  of  lawless  injury  to  persons  or  property,  instant  repara- 
tion applicable  to  the  case.  Warships  have  been  stationed  at 
Tientsin  for  more  ready  observation  of  the  disorders  which 
have  invaded  even  the  Chinese  capital,  so  as  to  be  in  a  position 
to  act,  should  need  arise,  while  a  guard  of  marines  has  been 
sent  to  Peking  to  afford  the  minister  the  same  measure  of 
authoritative  protection  as  the  representatives  of  other  nations 
have  been  constrained  to  employ/' 

"  Trade  follows  the  flag,"  says  one.  "  No,  it  follows  the 
price-list,"  says  another.  Both  are  right  enough.  The  flag 
may  make  the  price-list,  though  the  price-list  cannot  always 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  321 

carry  the  flag.  Naturally,  a  distant  dependency  will  hold 
nearer  commercial  relations  with  its  own  government  than 
with  another.  Lord  Charles  Beresford  advocates  a  trade 
understanding  between  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  Ger- 
many, and  Japan,  whose  interests  in  China  he  claims  are 
identical,  for  preventing  dismemberment  and  establishing  the 
open  door  and  development.  By  an  open  door  policy  he  means 
that  treaties  should  stand  as  they  are,  and  that  no  nation 
should  have  sovereign  rights  in  China,  or  be  allowed  to  ap- 
propriate lands  or  annex  territory,  and  that  all  nations  should 
have  equal  rights  in  every  part  of  the  empire  in  regard  to 
trade.  "  What  is  the  danger  with  regard  to  China?  "  he  asks. 
"  The  danger  with  regard  to  China  is  that  China  herself, 
through  her  effete  government,  through  her  old-fashioned 
system  of  administration,  may  break  up,  owing  to  disturbances 
all  over  the  country.  Well,  what  will  happen  then?  Those 
countries  that  have  properties  in  China  and  have  investments 
there,  and  have  trade  and  commerce  there,  will  naturally  do 
their  best  to  protect  that  trade  and  commerce,  and  for  the 
life  of  me  I  can  see  nothing  that  can  occur  if  there  are  disturb- 
ances in  China  owing  to  our  having  no  army,  no  police,  nothing 
that  will  occur,  except  the  sphere-of-influence  policy."  John 
Barrett,  late  United  States  minister  to  Siam,  believes  that 
"  the  only  permanent  safeguard  to  the  paramount  American 
and  British  interests  is  immediate  and  united  action  by  the 
interested  governments  to  defend  the  integrity  of  the  Chinese 
empire,  to  enforce  reforms  in  the  government,  to  prevent 
further  cessions  of  ports  and  provinces,  and  to  insist  upon  the 
open-door  policy  in  all  ports  of  China,  including  the  spheres 
of  influence  claimed  by  Russia,  Germany,  and  France. 

Half  of  the  foreign  commerce  of  China  passes  through 
Shanghai,  the  port  of  entry  for  the  Yangtse  country,  and  all 
the  coast  north  of  latitude  25°.  While  the  tea  trade  at 
Shanghai  diminishes,  the  silk  trade  increases.  Raw  cotton 
is  also  largely  exported,  most  of  it  going  to  Japan.  The  ex- 
port of  matting  to  the  United  States  is  mounting  up  towards 
half  a  million  rolls  per  annum;  straw  braid  is  falling  off,  as  the 
quality  is  deteriorating;  tin  is  exported  from  Mengtse.  The 
United  States  purchases  of  tea  at  Shanghai,  though  still  large, 
are  on  the  decline,  owing  to  excessive  taxation  and  obsolete 
methods  in  its  preparation.  At  the  same  time  the  exports  of 


THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

tea  from'  this  section  to  Eussia  arc  rather  increasing  than 
otherwise.  Indeed,  but  for  the  Eussian  demand,  the  Shanghai 
tea  trade  would  show  a  large  decline.  Flour  is  entered  free 
of  duty,  and  the  trade  is  rapidly  increasing,  American  brands 
preferred.  The  government  requirement  for  uniforms  under 
new  army  regulations  caused  a  demand  for  woollen  cloth  which 
continues  to  some  extent.  Matches  are  largely  imported  from 
Japan.  Shanghai  also  receives  in  quantities  sugar,  drinking 
stock,  ginseng,  time-keepers,  bags,  and  small  articles.  To  the 
American  Trading  company  at  Shanghai  regular  shipments  of 
lead  are  made  from  Puget  sound.  There  is  a  growing  demand 
in  China  for  American  drillings  and  sheetings.  In  demand 
likewise  are  American  watches  and  clocks,  food-stuffs  and 
stoves,  small-ware  paper  and  groceries,  builders'  hardware, 
canned  and  dried  vegetables  and  fruits,  butter  and  condensed 
milk,  wheat,  corn,  flour,  beer,  and  kerosene. 

Goat-skins  are  shipped  from  Chinkiang  to  the  United  States 
and  Europe.  Large  quantities  of  grain  are  shipped  from  this 
port;  also  beans  and  peas.  Ground  nuts  are  grown  in  the 
provinces  of  Honan  and  Kiangsu,  the  oil  of  which  is  used  as 
an  illuminant  and  for  cooking.  Lily  flowers,  from  which  a 
popular  drink  is  made,  are  shipped  to  southern  China  and  the 
Straits.  Hankau  now  exports  cotton  cloth,  as  well  as  silk  and 
tea.  Japanese  and  Shanghai  cotton  yarns  are  sent  to  Kiu- 
kiang  and  other  points. 

The  two  chief  articles  which  Hongkong  receives  from  the 
United  States  are  flour  and  kerosene,  sending  in  return  silk 
piece  goods,  rice,  clothing,  opium,  and  tea.  This  being  a 
free  port,  and  general  depot  for  English  products  on  the  coast 
of  Asia,  most  of  its  merchandise  enters  for  transshipment. 
Hongkong  receives  in  round  figures  from  China  merchandise 
to  the  value  of  $25,000,000,  and  sends  into  China  $45,000,000 
worth  of  goods  per  annum. 

Martin  in  his  Cycle  of  Cathay  thus  tells  the  story  of  an 
American  financial  venture  in  China.  "  Some  years  ago  an 
American  syndicate  made  its  appearance  with  a  formidable 
backing  of  capital,  aiming  at  something  like  a  commercial 
conquest.  It  was  represented  by  a  versatile  Polish  count,  who 
by  resorting  to  oriental  methods,  which  come  natural  to  Eus- 
sians,  carried  the  outworks  with  the  greatest  ease.  The  viceroy 
Li,  who  had  the  initiative  in  such  matters,  was  persuaded  to 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  323 

agree  to  a  loan  of  fifty  million  dollars,  to  be  employed  in  the 
establishment  of  a  national  system  of  banks  and  mints,  there 
not  being  at  that  time  a  mint  in  the  empire  except  for  copper 
coin.  He  was  to  permit  them,  in  return,  to  construct  and  run 
railways,  to  be  handed  over  after  a  term  of  years  free  of  cost. 
A  preliminary  contract  was  signed,  and  it  looked  as  if  China 
was  emerging  from  the  age  of  brass  to  have  the  ages  of  iron 
and  of  silver  all  at  once.  But  the  terms  required  to  be  sanc- 
tioned at  Peking.  It  failed  there,  and  the  world  imputed  the 
failure  to  the  incompetence  of  the  agent.  Never  was  imputa- 
tion more  unjust.  The  true  explanation  was  the  alarm  awa- 
kened among  European  diplomats  by  that  startling  outbreak 
of  American  enterprise.  *  Do  you  know  why  the  count's 
scheme  failed  so  signally?'  eaid  one  of  them  to  me.  'The 
German  minister  came  to  me,  and  the  other  ministers,  and 
holding  up  a  copy  of  the  contract  exclaimed,  "  There,  gentle- 
men! see  what  the  Americans  have  got.  If  we  allow  this 
thing  to  go  on  the  Yankees  will  sweep  the  board.  Then  we  may 
as  well  put  our  commissions  in  our  pockets  and  quit  the  field.'  " 
Nothing  would  do  but  we  must  go  with  him  to  the  yamen  to 
enter  protest.  And  so  that  brilliant  enterprise  was  killed. 
Whether  the  United  States  minister  could  have  done  any- 
thing to  defeat  this  counterplot,  if  he  had  known  it,  is  doubt- 
ful. But  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  opposition  would  not 
have  had  time  to  organize  if  the  agent  had  observed  due  se- 
crecy; or  if  instead  of  tarrying  at  Tientsin  he  had  pushed  on 
to  Peking  and  taken  the  United  States  minister  into  his  con- 
fidence, even  without  buying  up  a  prince  or  two.  The  United 
States  might  then  have  had  a  bonanza,  instead  of  seeing  all 
the  good  things  turned  over  to  our  neighbors." 

The  Chinese  importation  of  yarn  from  Japan"  is  assuming 
importance,  though  made  of  Chinese  cotton  which  pays  a  duty 
on  entering  Japan,  and  destined  to  be  returned  to  China  as 
yarn.  This  state  of  things  cannot  last,  as  the  Chinese  are  as 
well  able  to  manufacture  their  own  cotton  as  are  the  Japanese 
to  do  it  for  them,  and  pay  duties  and  transportation  besides. 
The  Chinese  are  surely  as  skilful  and  thrifty  as  the  Japanese, 
and  can  work  for  as  low  or  a  lower  wage. 

Interprovincial  trade  can  be  almost  indefinitely  increased 
with  proper  transportation  facilities.  The  great  commercial 
entrepots  and  centres,  as  Tientsin,  Chinkiang,  Yangchan,  Su- 


324  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

chau,  and  other  cities,  pulsate  with  the  New  Pacific  life  which 
beats  upon  the  seaboard,  but  the  great  interior  knows  nothing 
and  feels  nothing.  Away  from  the  rivers  and  canals,  where 
the  traffic  by  steamers  and  small  craft  is  large,  the  movements 
of  men  and  products  are  restricted.  But  imperial  railways  are 
projected  and  in  course  of  construction;  imperial  telegraphs 
are  reaching  far  out  on  every  side,  from  the  capital  to  Man- 
churia and  Siberia,  to  the  seven  treaty  ports,  to  the  border  of 
Burmah,  and  by  connections  from  all  the  principal  cities  of 
China  to  all  the  principal  cities  of  the  world.  Banking  and 
the  postal  service  are  also  well  begun.  Besides  the  steamers 
on  the  Yangtse,  7,000  junks,  some  of  them  carrying  100  or 
150  tons,  are  engaged  in  up-river  traffic,  including  a  multitude 
of  tributary  streams,  boatmen  receiving  pay  by  the  trip,  and 
not  by  the  week  or  month.  Cotton  can  be  grown  cheaper  in 
India  than  in  China;  this,  with  the  great  advantages  of  spin- 
ning by  machinery,  which  few  Chinamen  as  yet  understand, 
is  bringing  forward  Indian  yarn  to  the  detriment  of  Chinese 
cotton  culture. 

Newchwang  is  a  port  of  growing  importance,  owing  to  the 
export  thence  of  native  produce  and  Chinese  productions,  and 
the  imports  of  foreign  goods.  The  walled  city  of  Mukden,  the 
Tartar  capital,  situated  well  back  in  the  interior,  is  the  great 
Chinese  emporium  of  furs,  whose  trade  extends  to  all  parts 
of  the  world.  Next  to  furs  it  does  a  large  business  in  grain 
and  beans.  It  has  many  rich  merchants,  and  the  banks  are 
important  institutions. 

Since  the  Japan-China  war  the  Koreans  have  prospered. 
Trade  has  increased  from  $3,000,000  in  1893  to  $11,000,000 
in  1897,  owing  partly  to  the  occupation  of  the  peninsula  by 
Japanese  troops,  partly  to  the  scarcity  of  rice  in  Japan  while 
the  harvests  in  Korea  were  good,  and  partly  to  the  impulse 
given  to  progress  which  always  follows  a  general  shaking  up 
of  people  and  politics.  The  smuggling  operations  in  the  un- 
opened ports  were  checked  by  the  Korean  steamship  lines  es- 
tablished, proving  also  beneficial  to  the  government.  The 
imports  of  cotton  goods  and  exports  of  gold  have  both  in- 
creased. The  Japanese  manufactures  from  American  raw  cot- 
ton are  in  demand  throughout  Korea,  where  also  the  watches 
of  Japan  are  sold.  The  United  States  exports  to  Korea  ma- 
chinery, flour,  and  kerosene,  besides  groceries,  household 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  325 

utensils,  and  personal  articles.  The  machinery  is  for  mines, 
railroads,  and  agriculture. 

Besides  the  trade  of  the  Far  East  countries  with  Asiatic 
treaty  ports  and  foreign  lands,  there  is  no  small  traffic  in 
junks  with  the  non-treaty  ports  of  China,  Korea,  and  Japan. 
Says  Isabella  Bird  Bishop,  writing  for  England,  "  Our  great 
competitor  in  the  Korean  market  is  Japan,  and  we  have  to 
deal  not  only  with  a  rival  within  twenty  hours  of  Korean 
shores,  and  with  nearly  a  monopoly  of  the  carrying  trade,  but 
with  the  most  nimble-witted,  adaptive,  persevering,  and  push- 
ing people  of  our  day.  It  is  inevitable  that  British  hardware 
and  miscellaneous  articles  must  be  ousted  by  the  products  of 
Japanese  cheaper  labor,  and  that  the  Japanese  will  continue  to 
supply  the  increasing  demand  for  scissors,  knives,  matches, 
needles,  hoes,  grass  knives,  soap,  perfumes,  kerosene  lamps, 
iron  cooking  pots,  nails,  and  the  like,  but  the  loss  of  the 
trade  in  cotton  piece  goods  would  be  a  serious  matter,  and 
the  possibility  of  it  has  to  be  faced." 

Korean  imports  for  1886  were  $2,474,185;  exports,  $504,- 
225.  Imports  for  1895,  $8,088,213;  exports,  $2,481,808. 
Should  the  increase  continue  proportionately  for  the  decade 
following,  which  is  by  no  means  improbable  under  the  new 
regime,  the  imports  of  1906  would  be  some  $30,000,000;  ex- 
ports, $12,000,000.  In  food  supplies,  Korea  is  for  the  most 
part  self-sustaining,  importing  however  a  little  wheat.  Of 
manufactured  articles  the  Koreans  buy  cottons  and  kerosene, 
Chinese  silks  and  grass-cloths,  and  Japanese  yarn,  which  they 
weave  into  cloth.  The  United  States  sends  to  Korea  tobacco, 
drugs,  time-keepers,  and  drinks.  Imported  goods  are  carried 
into  the  interior  from  Fusan,  two-thirds  of  them  by  river  and 
one-third  by  pack  men  and  horses.  The  Naktong  river  is 
navigable  to  Sangchin,  170  miles;  there  is  a  projected  Seoul- 
Fusan  railway. 

The  Koreans  have  a  fancy  for  foreign  goods,  as  muslins, 
cambrics,  unbleached  shirtings,  and  lawns.  The  demand  for 
woollens  is  not  so  large,  their  own  wadded  cotton  clothes  suit- 
ing them  better.  The  consumption  of  American  coal  oil  is 
large,  displacing  as  it  does  fish  oil  and  rushlight.  They  are 
also  partial  to  American  matches.  The  Koreans  export  rice, 
beans,  whales'  flesh,  dried  fish,  and  hides.  Since  1883,  when 
Fusan  was  opened  to  trade,  the  foreign  population  of  that  city 


326  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

has  increased  from  1,500  to  7,000;  while  since  1885,  when  one 
steamer  of  the  Japan  Mail  Steamship  company  called  once  in 
five  weeks  on  its  way  to  Vladivostok,  the  foreign  trade  of 
Fusan  has  risen  from  $386,000  to  nearly  $3,000,000,  and  the 
arrival  of  steamers  is  of  daily  occurrence. 

On  market  day,  which  in  some  places  comes  every  five  days, 
in  the  narrow  streets  which  wind  among  the  wattle-huts  of 
a  Korean  town,  are  seen,  displayed  on  mats  lying  on  the  ground, 
cotton  cloth  and  thread,  wooden  combs,  straw  shoes,  dried 
fish,  and  seaweed,  dark  colored  barley  sugar,  tobacco  pouches 
and  pipes,  cord  and  paper.  In  the  villages  there  are  no  other 
shops  than  these.  A  large  mat  will  hold  perhaps  three  dollars 
worth  of  goods;  but  in  the  larger  towns  and  cities  there  are 
many  shops  whose  stock  is  worth  never  more  than  five  or  ten 
dollars.  These  have  for  sale,  in  addition  to  above,  bamboo 
hats,  glass  beads,  coarse  pottery,  candlesticks,  spittoons,  gog- 
gles, fans,  inkstands,  and  the  like. 

With  the  reorganization  of  the  Korean  government  in 
1894-5,  on  the  basis  of  Japanese  protection  and  independence 
from  China,  educational  systems  were  remodelled  and  foreign 
trade  assumed  new  proportions.  On  this  peninsula  are  12,000,- 
000  independent  people,  all  clad  in  cotton,  and  engaged  for 
the  most  part  in  cultivating  by  primitive  methods  the  rich 
valley  lands  which  lie  between  the  mountain  ranges.  For 
their  rice  and  beans  there  is  an  unlimited  demand  beyond 
seas,  and  for  their  ever  increasing  cotton  requirements  they 
will  learn  to  spin  and  weave  the  raw  article,  or  yarn  from 
abroad,  which  they  now  require  in  the  form  of  piece  goods. 
The  market  for  all  Korean  exports  except  rice,  that  is  to  say 
beans,  paper,  seaweed,  fish,  cowhides,  and  ginseng,  must  be 
found  in  China  and  Japan  alone;  imports  are  from  England, 
India,  and  the  United  States. 

Before  the  coming  of  Magellan  there  was  a  large  trade  be- 
tween the  Philippines  and  China,  interrupted  now  and  then 
by  typhoons  and  pirates,  but  on  the  whole  profitable.  This 
was  ended  for  a  time  when  Spain  took  possession,  and  by 
royal  edict  diverted  traffic  to  the  yearly  galleons  to  Acapulco. 
In  1764  began  direct  trade  with  Europe  via  Good  Hope,  all 
goods  from  Manila  being  as  ordered  by  the  government,  and 
carried  in  Spanish  ships;  and  as  if  there  were  not  impositions 
and  restrictions  enough,  a  monopoly  of  Spanish  commerce  in 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  327 

the  Far  East  was  in  1785  bestowed  on  the  Royal  company  of 
the  Philippines.  Slowly,  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  small  concessions  began  to  be  made. 

An  English  commercial  house  was  established  at  Manila  in 
1809,  and  in  1834  the  monopoly  of  the  Royal  company  ter- 
minated. Until  1842,  when  Cebu  was  opened  to  commerce, 
Manila  was  the  only  port  for  foreign  trade  in  the  Philippines. 
And  although  Jamboanga,  Sual,  Legazpi,  Tacloban,  and  Iloilo, 
are  also  open  for  trade,  only  three,  the  last  named  with  Cebu 
and  Manila,  are  regarded  of  much  importance.  Manila  ranks 
with  Batavia  and  Calcutta  as  a  trade  centre.  As  the  chief 
port  of  the  islands,  not  only  the  products  of  the  Philippines, 
but  foreign  merchandise  flows  thither  in  great  quantities. 
Under  Spanish  misrule  the  imports  and  exports  were  about 
the  same,  some  $16,000,000  annually,  the  former  consisting 
of  cotton  woollen  and  linen  goods,  coal  and  iron,  and -hardware 
earthenware  and  machinery,  and  the  latter,  besides  metals, 
being  the  usual  productions  of  the  tropics.  In  1897  the  ag- 
gregate trade  was  a  little  above  the  average,  Spain's  com- 
merce amounting  to  about  five  million  dollars;  England 
bought  to  the  value  of  $6,223,426  and  sold  $2,063,598;  the 
purchases  of  the  United  States  amounted  to  $4,383,740,  sales 
$94,597.  The  Philippine  sales  consisted  chiefly  of  hemp, 
sugar,  tobacco,  and  cocoanuts,  and  the  purchases  were  of 
cotton  silk  and  woollen  manufactures,  machinery  and  metal 
manufactures,  groceries,  drugs,  paper,  shoes,  liquors,  and  small 
goods.  Japan's  Philippine  importations  for  1897  amounted 
to  $1,332,300,  mostly  in  coffee,  sugar,  flax,  and  cigars,  return- 
ing manufactures  of  cotton  and  silk,  fish,  beer,  beans,  coal, 
and  small  articles.  Following  the  conquest,  vessels  registered 
as  Spanish  property  were  permitted  to  carry  the  flag  of  the 
United  States  and  claim  protection  thereunder. 

The  term  open  door,  as  applied  to  the  Philippines,  does  not 
mean  free  trade,  as  the  islands  will  have  their  tariff  and  pay 
the  same  duties  on  products  of  the  United  States  as  on  those 
of  other  countries. 

From  the  interior  of  Luzon,  and  from  the  more  distant 
provinces,  hemp,  sugar,  tobacco,  and  wood  are  brought  to 
Manila,  and  constitute  the  greater  part  of  Philippine  trade. 
The  silk  merchants  are  an  important  factor  in  inland  com- 
merce. In  every  town,  in  common  with  other  traders,  they 


328  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

have  their  shops.  The  products  of  the  country  are  brought 
to  the  town  in  baskets,  and  offered  for  sale  to  a  great  extent 
on  ihe  open  street,  or  hawked  about  the  place. 

Next  to  Manila,  Iloilo,  on  the  island  of  Panay,  in  the  centre 
of  the  Philippine  archipelago,  is  the  largest  and  most  im- 
portant town.  Since  it  was  thrown  open  to  foreign  trade  by 
Spain  several  years  ago,  its  imports  of  European  and  Chinese 
goods  have  largely  increased,  while  exporting  sugar  and  other 
island  products. 

The  retail  trade  of  the  Philippines  is  mostly  in  the  hands 
of  the  Chinese,  and  after  them  come  the  Spaniards,  or  Creoles, 
who  with  the  mestizos  constitute  the  wealthy  merchant  class. 
Englishmen  lead  in  dry  goods  and  ship  chandlery;  the  Swiss 
and  Germans  are  importers  of  general  merchandise,  and  ex- 
port hemp  and  sugar.  Before  the  fall  of  Manila  cotton  yarns 
were  brought  from  Barcelona.  There  is  a  heavy  demand  for 
American  beer.  The  conquest  of  Manila  seems  to  have  created 
a  new  thirst  all  along  the  Asiatic  coast,  islands  and  mainland. 
As  new  lines  of  steamers  were  established,  from  Puget  sound, 
San  Francisco,  and  San  Diego,  the  resources  of  the  brewers 
were  taxed  to  their  full  capacity.  With  the  enthusiasm  of 
victory  every  thing  American  became  immediately  popular, 
from  beer  wine  and  whiskey  to  clothing  groceries  and  machin- 
ery, particularly  at  Hongkong  and  other  British  ports.  Said 
an  English  naval  officer:  "  I  am  pretty  well  informed  as  to 
matters  in  the  Orient  from  having  sailed  in  and  out  for  many 
years,  and  this  is  why  I  notice  these  changes  favorable  to  every- 
thing American.  It's  simply  marvellous  what  the  victories  of 
your  country  have  done  to  arouse  enthusiastic  friendship  for 
you  over  there.  It  is  very  plain  to  me  that  by  taking  advantage 
of  the  changed  conditions,  as  you  certainly  will,  the  entire 
business  of  the  Orient  will  be  practically  revolutionized.  The 
possibilities  are  enormous,  and  you  have  driven  in  an  entering 
wedge  that  will  surely  open  the  way  to  a  splendid  commerce." 

In  all  the  islands,  in  Porto  Eico,  Cuba,  Hawaii,  and  the 
Philippines,  business  at  the  beginning  of  1899  was  in  a  flour- 
ishing condition,  and  rapidly  increasing,  though  in  the  places 
where  rebellion  had  been  so  lately  rampant,  some  little  time 
was  necessary  in  which  to  recover  from  the  effects  of  war.  Be- 
fore insurrection  2,000  ships  entered  the  ports  of  Cuba  an- 
nually; the  time  will  come  when  there  will  be  4,000,  and  then 
8,000. 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  329 

Before  annexation  the  Hawaiian  islands  were  importing 
some  six  millions  annually,  and  exporting  products  to  the  value 
of  about  fourteen  million  dollars,  most  of  which  trade  *was 
with  the  United  States,  and  the  chief  article  of  export  'was 
sugar,  with  some  coffee,  pineapples,  and  bananas.  Then  and 
since,  nearly  all  the  requirements  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  were 
supplied  from  the  United  States  Pacific  coast,  general  mer- 
chandise flour  and  fruit  from  California,  flour  grain  and  hay 
from  Oregon,  and  lumber  from  Puget  sound,  sending  in  return 
sugar  and  tropical  fruits.  The  islands  have  steamship  inter- 
course direct  with  San  Francisco,  San  Diego,  Puget  sound, 
Japan,  China,  and  Australia.  Freight  rates  to  San  Francisco 
$5  a  ton  by  steamer  and  $3  by  sailing  vessels.  Passage  $75  and 
$100;  steerage  $25  and  $30.  The  imports  of  1897  were  76.94 
per  cent  from  the  United  States;  11.85  per  cent  from  England 
and  her  colonies;  and  the  remainder  from  Germany,  China, 
and  Japan  in  about  equal  proportions;  of  the  total  exports, 
96  per  cent  was  sugar,  of  which  article,  with  rice,  hides,  wool, 
coffee,  and  fruits,  99.62  per  cent  went  to  the  United  States. 
Europe  sends  to  the  islands  cement,  crockery,  corrugated  iron, 
oils,  paints,  tin,  and  twine;  immediate  requirements  may  be 
obtained  from  San  Francisco.  Cotton  goods,  boots  and  shoes, 
and  felt  and  straw  hats  are  sent  in  quantities  from  the  United 
States. 

By  act  of  congress  the  maritime  laws  of  the  United  States 
were  extended  over  the  Hawaiian  islands,  the  interisland  trade 
to  be  regulated  by  the  laws  governing  internal  commerce  in 
the  United  States.  The  islands  were  established  as  one  of  the 
customs  districts,  with  Hilo,  Mahukana,  and  Kabiutius  as  sub- 
ports  of  entry,  the  collector's  office  to  be  at  Honolulu. 

The  articles  of  commerce  most  offensive  in  tropical  trans- 
portation to  the  sailor  are  sugar,  coffee,  kerosene  oil,  and  pine 
lumber.  A  vessel  full  of  raw  sugar  becomes  so  sickening  as 
to  drive  every  man  to  the  deck,  day  and  night.  Coffee  is  but 
little  better,  while  a  fortnight  with  pine  lumber  in  the  tropics 
gives  the  mouth  a  resinous  taste  throughout  the  entire  voyage. 

Next  in  commercial  importance  to  Hawaii,  among  the  isles 
of  midocean  and  the  south  Pacific,  are  Samoa  and  Fiji,  whose 
people  buy  largely  of  kerosene,  flour,  and  canned  and  dried 
fruits  and  fish.  About  one-half  of  the  total  imports  of  the 
Society  islands  is  from  the  United  States,  and  consists  of  all 


330  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

the  grain,  timber,  and  kerosene  used,  and  from  one-quarter  to 
three-quarters  of  the  salted  and  canned  provisions,  wines,  oils, 
paints,  tobacco,  and  cotton  cloth  imported. 

When  Samoa  was  the  rendezvous  for  the  sperm  whale  fish- 
ery, the  islands  had  quite  a  trade,  but  since  then  it  has  been 
confined  mostly  to  the  sale  of  its  staple  product  copra,  or  dried 
cocoanuts,  worth  from  $40  to  $60  a  ton.  In  the  oil  obtained 
from  copra  lies  its  chief  industrial  value. 

The  Sulu  islands  connect  the  commerce  of  the  Philippines 
with  that  of  n'orth  Borneo.  Siam,  with  8,000,000  inhabitants 
is  larger  in  area  than  Japan,  and  the  third  independent  king- 
dom in  Asia.  The  city  of  Bangkok  has  600,000  inhabitants. 
The  people  like  cheap  cloth  of  bright  colors.  They  also  buy 
flour,  canned  goods,  sewing-machines,  clocks,  watches,  and 
electrical  machinery.  The  commerce  of  the  Carolines  is  largely 
controlled  by  the  Germans.  The  trade  of  New  Caledonia  is 
for  the  greater  part  with  Australian  colonies  and  with  France. 
Breadstuff s  go  thither  from  the  British  colonies,  and  wines,  and 
small  manufactured  articles,  from  France.  In  return  New 
Caledonia  sends  mineral  ores  and  metals  to  France,  nickel  and 
cobalt  ores  to  England,  and  chrome  ores  to  Australia. 

The  island  continent  of  Australia,  whose  possibilities  are 
limitless  and  whose  development  is  but  just  begun,  should  be 
one  of  the  best  of  markets  for  the  products  of  California  Ore- 
gon! and  Washington,  being  nearer  to  these  states  than  to  the 
eastern  coast  and  England,  and  communication  being  easy  and 
frequent. 

Ninety  per  cent  of  the  trade  of  New  Zealand  is  with  Eng- 
land, and  the  greater  part  of  the  other  one-tenth  is  with  the 
United  States.  The  exports  to  England  consist  of  live  cattle, 
frozen  beef,  and  mutton,  wool,  and  all  kinds  of  farm  and 
dairy  products,  including  butter  cheese  and  cereals.  New 
Zealand  sends  also  to  the  Australian  colonies  farm  produce, 
particularly  when  crops  fail  from  drought,  which  occurs  fre- 
quently in  the  colonies,  and  has  considerable  trade  with  Sa- 
moa, Fiji,  Tahiti,  Raratonga,  and  Norfolk  island.  From  the 
United  States  New  Zealand  obtains  tobacco,  kerosene,  and 
hardware. 

To  the  colony  of  Victoria  is  sent  from  the  United  States 
tobacco,  lumber,  oil,  and  agricultural  implements.  Some 
wheat  and  flour  have  to  be  sent  to  New  South  Wales,  owing  to 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  331 

occasional  failure  of  crops.  Lumber  is  brought  here  from 
Puget  sound.  Hence  to  the  United  States  go  tin,  coal,  wool, 
marsupial  skins  and  shale.  Auckland  and  Sydney  obtain 
bananas  and  pineapples  from  Samoa;  also  limes  and  pine- 
apples from  San  Francisco.  All  foreign  steamship  lines  have 
their  terminus  at  Sydney,  the  commercial  metropolis  of 
Australasia.  Weekly  communication  with  London  is  had  by 
vessels  of  the  two  companies,  the  Peninsula  and  Oriental,  and 
the  Orient  Steamship  company;  first  class  fare  £60  to  £70, 
freight  £2,  10s  per  ton.  A  monthly  service  to  Marseilles  is 
supplied  by  the  Messageries  Maritimes  company,  and  month- 
ly to  Amsterdam  by  the  Nordeutscher  Lloyds  company.  Be- 
sides these  there  are  lines  to  Hongkong,  San  Francisco,  and 
Vancouver,  and  fleets  of  fine  vessels  for  the  intercolonial  trade. 
Writing  in  Problems  of  Greater  Britain,  in  1890,  Charles 
Wentworth  Dilke  remarks:  "  I  said  in  Greater  Britain  that 
in  the  relations  of  America  to  Australia  lay  the  key  to  the 
future  of  the  Pacific,  and  the  Americanisation  of  Hawaii — 
the  most  important  group  of  the  islands  in  Polynesia,  and  one 
by  its  central  situation  destined  to  become  more  and  more 
flourishing  as  time  goes  on — as  well  as  the  recent  action  of  the 
United  States  with  regard  to  Samoa,  go  to  show  that  I  was  not 
far  wrong.  Germany  in  1868  had  hardly  been  heard  of  as  a 
Pacific  power,  but  even  now  her  hold  upon  the  islands  that 
are  mainly  under  German  influence  is  rather  commercial  than 
political,  and  caused  by  the  enterprise  of  the  Hamburg  houses 
which  at  the  time  when  Greater  Britain  appeared,  already  had 
their  branches  in  the  western  Pacific.  We  may  possibly  one 
day  obtain  by  exchange  New  Caledonia,  which  lies  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  sphere  of  British  influence  in  the  western  Pacific, 
or,  at  all  events,  bring  about  the  neutralisation  of  the  group 
with  stipulations  against  differential  duties,  and  that  cessa- 
tion of  transportation  for  which  we  have  successfully  bar- 
gained with  the  Germans.  Australia  and  New  Zealand  and 
Fiji  form  neighbours  too  powerful  for  the  continued  inde- 
pendence of  the  French  settlement  in  their  midst,  unless  it 
should  become  wholly  harmless,  after  the  manner  in  which 
the  French  settlements  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Calcutta  and 
Madras  and  in  other  parts  of  India  have  been  brought  within 
the  British  Indian  system.  While  at  one  end  of  the  Malay 
archipelago  we  have  annexed  south-eastern  New  Guinea,  at 


332  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

the  other  end  we  have  obtained  a  dominant  position  in  the 
northern  portion  of  the  island  of  Borneo.  The  first  of  the 
modern  charters  to  great  trading  companies  for  the  occupa- 
tion of  territorial  dominions,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  was  that 
granted  by  Mr.  Gladstone's  second  administration  to  the 
British  North  Borneo  company  in  the  immediate  neighbour- 
hood of  our  island  colony  of  Labuan.  More  recently  we  have 
obtained  protectorates  over  Brunei  and  Sarawak,  chiefly  for 
the  purpose  of  preventing  the  possibility  of  the  interference 
of  any  foreign  power  in  those  countries,  which  lie  close  to  our 
great  commercial  settlement  of  Singapore,  and  upon  the  track 
of  our  Australian  trade  through  Torres  straits.  In  the  Malay 
peninsula,  off  which  Borneo  lies,  we  have  also  recently  under- 
taken the  protectorate — already,  in  fact,  virtually  ours  before 
that  time — of  Johore  and  other  of  the  Malay  states.  The 
western  states,  which  face  India  and  lie  upon  our  track  of 
trade,  have  long  been  within  our  influence;  but  our  direct 
action  in  the  north-eastern  Malay  country  is  more  recent. 
The  extraordinary  development  of  trade  at  Singapore  is  a 
matter  rather  for  statisticians  than  for  me,  except  as  regards 
mere  mention;  but  I  may  point  out  the  not  altogether  encour- 
aging fact  that  the  increase  appears  to  be  with  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  with  our  colonies  and  dependencies  rather  than 
with  ourselves.  Our  great  success  in  the  Malay  peninsula  has 
lain  in  enlisting  upon  our  side  the  warm  and  even  enthusiastic 
cooperation  of  the  Chinese.  We  may  congratulate  ourselves 
upon  the  fact  that,  while  the  French  have  failed  to  sufficiently 
conciliate  the  Chinese  race  to  induce  them  to  confer  pros- 
perity upon  the  French  colonies  in  Further  India,  we  on  the 
contrary  have  tempted  the  Chinese  to  settle  the  Malay  penin- 
sula now  for  many  generations.  I  have  seen  Chinese  magis- 
trates at  Penang  whose  ancestors  have  been  magistrates  there 
since  immediately  after  the  foundation  of  our  settlement  one 
hundred  and  five  years  ago,  and  who  have  completely  identi- 
fied themselves  with  the  interest  of  Great  Britain.  The  latest 
of  the  Malay  states  to  come  within  the  circle  of  our  protection 
has  been  Pahang,  which  will  follow  Perak  and  the  others  In 
the  growth  of  cultivation  and  of  trade.  In  no  part  of  the 
world  can  we  point  to  more  obvious  results  from  good  govern- 
ment than  throughout  the  Malay  peninsula,  where  England 
in  fact  presides  over  a  federation  of  Malay  princes  to  whom  we 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  333 

have  taught  the  arts  of  success,  but  to  whose  former  subjects 
we  have  added  a  vast  immigrant  population  of  Chinese.  In 
upper  Burmah,  recently  annexed  to  India,  the  Chinese  are 
pushing  their  way  at  every  centre  of  activity.  They  have 
flowed  into  the  country  since  our  troops  have  occupied  it,  and 
many  of  them  have  married  Burmese  women,  who  much  pre- 
fer to  be  kept  in  plenty  by  the  Chinamen  to  being  drudges  of 
the  men  of  their  own  race.  The  future  of  the  Burmese  prov- 
inces of  India,  as  that  of  Malaya,  lies  in  the  development  of 
great  natural  mineral  and  agricultural  wealth  by  patient 
Chinese  labor." 

And  at  a  later  date  John  D.  Connolly,  formerly  United 
States  consul  to  New  Zealand,  remarks:  "  There  is  a  wide 
field  in  Australasia  at  present  if  we  only  take  advantage  of  it. 
The  sentiment  of  the  people  toward  America  and  American 
products  and  manufactures  is  as  genuine  and  kindly  as  it  can 
possibly  be.  I  take  it  to  be  our  duty  to  cultivate  and  encour- 
age that  generous  friendship.  We  are  losing  trade  every 
day  owing  to  the  deficient  size  and  slowness  of  our  present 
line  of  communication.  The  vessels  are  neither  large  enough 
nor  fast  enough.  I  am  informed  that  freight  has  to  be  shut 
out  here  nearly  every  trip.  This  should  not  be  so.  I  am  told 
that  only  recently  so  much  freight  for  the  colonies  had  been 
shut  out  that  the  merchants  had  to  charter  a  sailing  vessel  to 
take  the  surplus  cargo  to  Sydney,  New  South  Wales.  This 
only  feeds  the  Vancouver  line  and  injures  this  port." 

Trade  with  the  Pacific  coast  of  South  America  can  be 
greatly  increased.  A  revival  in  mining,  which  industry  has 
been  somewhat  neglected,  would  call  for  mining  machinery, 
in  the  manufacture  of  which  California  has  become  famous. 
Agricultural  implements  will  likewise  be  in  demand,  besides 
the  many  other  articles  in  the  manufacture  of  which  the 
United  States  now  competes  successfully  with  Europe.  Thus 
far,  however,  our  showing  is  not  as  good  as  it  should  be. 

In  South  America,  England  France  and  Germany  have  the 
largest  part  of  the  trade,  and  for  obvious  reasons.  Millions 
of  British  money  have  been  spent  in  the  development  of  the 
Plate  river  region,  through  which  means  the  British  have 
taken  care  to  secure  trade.  The  British  also  control  the  for- 
eign shipping  and  banking  trade  of  Argentina,  Brazil,  and 
Uruguay.  The  Frenchman  sells  cheap  goods,  while  the  Ger- 


33-i  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

man  studies  the  market  untiringly,  and  adapts  his  business  to 
the  necessities  of  the  country.  As  in  Mexico,  American  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers  have  not  yet  applied  the  requisite 
energy  and  skill  for  successful  competition  with  Europeans 
in  South  America. 

Chili  imports  about  fifty  million  dollars  worth  per  annum 
of  sugar,  cattle,  coal,  cotton  and  woollen  goodst  groceries,  steel 
goods,  and  lumber,  and  exports  in  nitrate,  copper,  silver,  gold, 
wheat,  barley,  iodine,  hides,  and  other  articles  to  the  value  in 
round  numbers  of  sixty  million  dollars  a  year.  The  export 
of  nitrate  amounts  to  one  million  tons,  valued  at  seven  million 
dollars,  the  latter  amount  including  the  export  duty.  The 
cattle  for  Chili  come  from  Argentina,  and  raw  sugar  from 
Peru.  Great  Britain  supplies  textiles  in  the  form  of  shirt- 
ings, drills,  prints,  baize,  and  other  cloths,  woollen  as  well  as 
cotton;  also  bar  and  sheet  steel  and  tin  plates;  coal,  galvan- 
ized bar  and  pig  iron,  and  linseed  oil;  also  clothing,  shoes, 
engines,  and  machinery,  instruments  and  implements  for  the 
arts  and  industries,  railway  and  shipping  supplies,  cotton  and 
linen  thread,  and  many  other  articles,  particularly  those  for 
domestic  use.  Germany  takes  the  lead  in  piece  goods,  cotton 
and  woollen  dress  goods,  telegraph  supplies,  nitrate  refining 
machinery,  small  wares,  wire,  and  wall-paper.  The  United 
States  is  first  in  coal  oil,  iron  nails,  and  agricultural  imple- 
ments. Spain  supplies  Chili  with  cigars,  Germany  with 
cigarette  and  cheap  printing  paper,  pianos,  and  toys,  and  Peru 
with  silver  bullion.  Except  iodine  and  nitrate  of  soda,  all  of 
the  staple  exports  of  Chili  are  produced  in  the  United  States. 

Chili  has  two  subsidized  lines  of  coast  steamers,  and  her 
European  as  well  as  Pacific  trade  is  rapidly  growing.  There 
is  here  as  well  as  in  Peru  a  good  field  for  active  and  intelligent 
industry  with  capital.  At  present  the  people  confine  their 
purchases  in  the  main  to  what  they  have  been  accustomed, 
but  with  an  enlargement  of  ideas  they  will  become  larger  con- 
sumers. Germany  imports  from  Chili  about  $9,000,000  an- 
nually, nearly  half  of  which  is  nitrate  for  fertilizing  exhausted 
lands.  Next  in  importance  are  sole-leather,  hides,  gold,  and 
copper.  In  return  Germany  gives  woollen  and  cotton  goods, 
iron  articles,  and  sugar. 

Trade  opportunities  with  Peru  are  among  the  best  on  the 
South  American  coast.  Callao  obtains  from  Chili  charcoal 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  335 

and  lumber,  rice  from  India,  Asiatic  products  from  China 
and  the  Philippine  islands,  and  coal  from  Australia. 

The  Germans  who  are  in  Bolivia  speak  Spanish  fluently, 
are  truthful  and  reliable,  study  the  necessities  of  the  country, 
and  so  command  the  trade.  Residence  among  the  people 
being  one  of  the  essentials  of  success,  here  as  elsewhere  in 
Spanish  America,  the  Germans  have  the  advantage  of  the 
business  men  of  the  United  States,  who  find  too  many  ad- 
vantages at  home  to  justify  them  in  leaving  it  in  large  num- 
bers for  a  life  among  the  half-civilized  societies  of  South 
America,  where  there  are  no  spots  set  apart  for  foreign  col- 
onies and  spheres  of  influence  as  in  China.  The  United 
States  stands  next  to  England  in  exports  to  Ecuador,  the  lead- 
ing articles  being  kerosene,  flour,  lard,  barbed  wire,  and  lum- 
ber, the  last  named  being  also  sent  to  the  Falkland  islands  via 
England.  The  San  Francisco  exporters  of  lumber,  wine, 
fruit,  wheat,  and  flour,  have  lately  had  cause  to  complain  of 
Ecuador's  discriminating  against  California  in  favor  of  Chili, 
as  in  violation  of  treaty  with  the  United  States. 

The  people  of  Colombia  want  their  cotton  prints  30  yards 
long,  22  inches  wide,  and  packed  in  bales  of  60  pieces  each, 
and  not  more  than  two  pieces  of  one  pattern.  This  shows 
how  carefully  both  merchant  and  customer  consider  economy 
in  cutting  and  making  the  gown,  and  naturally  they  buy  from 
the  manufacturer  who  serves  their  whims.  Again,  all  goods 
for  the  interior  must  be  in  strong  water-proof  packages  of  125 
pounds  each,  ready  to  be  laid  upon  the  back  of  a  mule  when  it 
comes  from  the  ship. 

The  two  leading  articles  of  export  from  Colon  are  mangan- 
ese and  bananas,  while  Panama  sends  forth  mother-of-pearl 
shells  and  ivory  nuts.  The  ports  of  Panama,  Colon,  and  Boca 
del  Toro,  receive  flour  and  lumber  from  the  United  States, 
and  mixed  manufactures  from  every  quarter  of  the  earth. 
Branch  houses  control  the  trade  in  all  these  tropical  coun- 
tries. Fairs  are  held  three  times  a  year  at  Magangue,  on  the 
Magdalena  river,  where  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  persons 
from  every  part  of  the  republic  meet  and  exchange  commodi- 
ties. 

Netherland  America  now  obtains  from  Mexico  some  of  the 
manufactured  articles  formerly  brought  from  Europe  and  the 
United  States,  but  the  trade  of  the  latter  is  proportionately 


336  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

larger  than  in  Mexico,  and  susceptible  of  increase.  Guate- 
mala and  Honduras  could  use  more  cotton  and  woollen  goods, 
drugs,  and  groceries,  while  Costa  Eica  purchases  from  the 
United  States  cotton  goods,  hardware,  galvanized  iron  arti- 
cles and  earthenAvare,  based  on  competitive  German  prices. 
Merchandise  for  Honduras,  from  New  York  and  Liverpool 
as  well  as  from  San  Francisco,  enters  for  the  most  part  from 
the  Pacific  side  through  the  port  of  Amapala.  Goods  are 
brought  from  Atlantic  ports  via  Cape  Horn  and  across  the 
Panama  isthmus,  the  freight  from  Liverpool  and  Hamburg 
being  a  little  less  than  from  New  York.  The  imports  of  Hon- 
duras are  largely  from  the  United  States,  and  consist  of  cotton 
cloths  and  machinery  from  the  east,  and  flour  lumber  and 
wine  from  the  west  coast. 

Nicaragua  has  two  ports  of  entry  on  the  Pacific,  Corinto 
and  San  Juan  del  Norte.  Nearly  all  the  exports,  consisting 
of  hides,  tuna,  and  indiarubber,  go  to  the  United  States. 
Nicaragua  imports  mostly  from  the  United  States  flour,  kero- 
sene, iron  articles,  meats,  groceries,  vegetables,  and  beer 
wines  and  liquors.  Not  only  may  we  expect  a  large  increase 
in  our  Asiatic  trade,  but  the  commerce  of  the  Central  and 
South  American  republics  may  be  cultivated  with  profit.  We 
might  furnish  a  much  larger  proportion  of  their  imports  with 
profit  to  them  and  to  us.  Says  Mr  Stuyvesant  Fish,  "  The 
36,000,000  of  people  living  in  the  ten  South  American  repub- 
lics buy  goods  from  other  countries  to  the  value  of  $376,- 
000,000  annually,  of  which  we  sell  them  only  $33,000,000. 
The  five  Central  American  states,  with  a  population  of 
3,500,000,  take  foreign  goods  to  the  amount  of  $23,000,000 
annually,  of  which  we  sell  them  only  $5,320,000.  Mexico, 
our  neighbor,  with  rail  connection  at  several  places  on  our 
border,  with  a  population  of  13,000,000,  buys  abroad  to  the 
extent  of  $42,000,000,  but  we  sell  its  people  only  $21,000,000. 
The  West  Indies,  not  including  Cuba  or  Porto  Eico,  buy 
$45,000,000  worth  of  goods  in  foreign  countries,  of  which 
we  provide  $15,000,000.  The  startling  fact  is  that  we  buy 
yearly  from  the  South  American  countries  $67,000,000  more 
than  they  buy  of  us;  in  other  words,  they  sell  us  their  products 
and  with  our  money  make  purchases  in  Europe." 

While  the  people  of  the  United  States  buy  more  from 
Mexico  than  Great  Britain,  France,  Germany,  and  Spain 


COMMERCE    OF    THE    PACIFIC  337 

combined,  Mexico  buys  less  from  the  United  States  than  from 
these  countries,  whose  merchants  have  held  the  trade  so  long 
that  it  is  difficult  to  wrest  it  from  them.  They  know  the 
people,  speak  their  language,  and  live  among  them;  they  study 
their  wants,  know  the  kind  of  goods  to  offer  and  in  what  size 
packages.  They  know  how  to  sell  so  as  to  make  a  profit, 
and  how  to  collect  without  offending.  The  United  States  obtain 
from  Mexico  coffee,  tobacco,  indiarubber,  guns,  textile  grasses, 
fruits,  hides,  and  dyewoods,  furnishing  in  return  agricultural 
implements,  and  mining  and  other  machinery.  Goods  should 
be  specially  manufactured  for  Mexico,  in  the  United  States  as 
in  Europe,  and  put  up  in  attractive  packages  of  the  proper 
size,  with  brilliant  labels  to  catch  the  eye. 

The  republics  of  America  should  stand  in  with  one  an- 
other, in  trade  as  in  political  matters.  Were  the  American 
republic  in  China  there  would  be  no  dismemberment  of  that 
empire  by  the  powers  of  Europe;  and  were  there  no  United 
States  in  America  those  same  European  powers  would  soon 
have  their  evil  eye  on  the  weak  and  factious  parts  now  dom- 
inated by  the  mixed  Spanish  and  Indian  populations,  even 
as  the  French  Napoleon  and  the  Austrian  Maximilian  once 
had  their  eye  on  Mexico. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A  GLANCE  BACKWARD 

QUITE  a  contrast  between  Pacific  commerce  of  the  present 
day  and  traffic  here  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago;  but  not 
greater  than  will  be  the  difference  between  the  present  and  a 
hundred  years  hence.  A  glance  backward  sometimes  is  as 
beneficial  as  a  glance  forward,  for  in  comparing  the  present 
with  the  past  are  we  best  enabled  to  form  some  reasonable 
idea  of  what  we  may  expect  in  the  future. 

The  primary  motive  attending  all  discovery  was  trade,  bnt 
trade  like  proselyting  is  of  different  kinds.  The  first  comers 
to  America  were  no  more  particular  about  giving  fair  values 
to  the  natives  of  America  than  are  the  continental  govern- 
ments to-day  in  their  dealings  with  Asia  and  Africa;  a  few 
trinkets,  glass  beads  and  the  like,  a  little  religion  consisting 
of  talk  and  mummery,  and  all  the  gold  within  reach  was  the 
price,  which  if  not  freely  given  was  taken  by  force.  Hand  in 
hand  went  forth  robbery  and  religion  then  as  now;  let  any 
one  show  if  he  can  the  fundamental  difference  in  the  Euro- 
pean conquest  of  America  and  the  European  conquest  of 
China. 

Trade  comes  to  mankind  like  respiration,  unconsciously. 
We  value  less  our  own  than  another's  belongings;  and  so  the 
Indian  would  give  ten  otter  skins  for  a  red  handkerchief,  ten 
of  which  were  not  worth  one  otter  skin.  Traders  and  ship- 
masters used  to  regard  it  wrong  in  the  unsophisticated  savage 
to  steal  from  them,  but  civilization  never  seemed  to  consider 
it  wrong  to  steal  from  savages;  and  at  the  present  day,  in  lieu 
of  the  savage  pure  and  simple,  as  the  naked  wild  man  in 
primeval  forest  is  becoming  scarce,  civilized  or  half  civilized 
nations  will  do  for  European  lootings  if  the  lands  are  broad 
and  the  government  weak. 

Long  before  ever  a  white  man  saw  the  Pacific,  before  the 

338 


A    GLANCE    BACKWARD  339 

times  of  Polo  and  Mandeville,  of  Balboa  and  Magellan,  trade 
was  brisk  all  around  this  great  ocean.  There  was  commerce 
in  ships  between  China  and  Japan,  between  China  and  the 
Philippines,  between  all  the  Asiatic  isles  and  mainland  shores, 
besides  an  inland  commerce  along  the  river  courses  and 
mountain  paths,  of  the  magnitude  of  which  we  can  have  little 
conception  at  the  present  day.  Nor  was  this  shore  and  inland 
traffic  confined  to  Asia.  On  the  American  side  it  was  the 
same;  not  so  extensive,  perhaps,  but  richer,  more  important, 
and  more  extensive  than  we  ever  shall  know.  Proof  lies  in 
what  the  conquerors  saw,  and  in  the  writings  of  native  his- 
torians. The  balsas  of  the  Peruvians  were  not  so  venture- 
some as  the  junks  of  the  Japanese,  whose  wrecks  have  been 
found  on  the  American  shore  as  far  south  as  California,  but 
they  plied  the  coast  far  and  near,  and  visited  such  islands  as 
were  within  their  reach.  It  was  so  with  the  Aztecs  in  Mexico, 
and  even  with  the  wilder  tribes  of  the  north;  they  were  all 
eager  to  interchange  commodities,  and  besides  the  coast  com- 
merce their  dealings  extended  far  into  the  interior. 

The  Manila  trade  to  Acapulco  was  confined  by  Spain  within 
the  narrowest  limits,  not  unlike  that  of  the  registered  ships 
from  Cadiz  to  the  West  Indies.  The  crown  furnished  the 
ships,  and  paid  the  officers  and  crews.  "  The  tunnage  "  says 
Richard  Walter  "  is  divided  into  a  certain  number  of  bales, 
all  of  the  same  size.  These  are  distributed  among  the  con- 
vents at  Manila,  but  principally  to  the  Jesuits,  as  a  donation, 
to  support  their  missions  for  the  propagation  of  the  catholic 
faith;  and  the  convents  have  hereby  a  right  to  embark  such 
a  quantity  of  goods  on  board  the  Manila  ship  as  the  tunnage 
of  their  bales  amounts  to.  Or  if  they  chuse  not  to  be  con- 
cerned in  trade  themselves,  they  have  the  power  of  selling 
this  privilege  to  others.  Nor  is  it  uncommon  when  the  mer- 
chant to  whom  they  sell  their  share  is  unprovided  of  a  stock, 
for  the  convents  to  lend  him  considerable  sums  of  money  on 
bottomry." 

It  is  strange  that  men  as  avaricious  as  the  sovereigns  of 
Spain,  or  their  ministers,  should  not  have  seen  how  this  sys- 
tem worked  against  them.  The  Chinese  silks  were  sold 
throughout  America,  as  well  as  in  Spain,  cheaper  than  the 
silks  of  Spain,  to  the  utter  ruin  eventually  of  the  silk  manu- 
facturers of  Valencia.  In  like  manner  European  linens  were 


340  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

largely  thrown  out  of  the  American  markets  by  these  cheap 
Chinese  silks,  and  the  cottons  from  the  Coromandel  coast, 
thus  rendering  Mexico  and  Peru  less  dependent  on  Spain  for 
their  staple  commodities  than  this  grandmother  of  colonies 
liked  them  to  be;  and  all  for  the  enrichment  of  the  Jesuits, 
and  of  the  merchants  and  officials  directly  interested  in  the 
trade.  In  fact,  efforts  were  occasionally  made  to  have  this 
system  abolished,  but  in  every  instance  the  Jesuits  proved 
too  powerful  for  their  antagonists. 

The  round  trip  occupied  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  sail- 
ing from  Manila  in  July,  and  reaching  Acapulco  in  Decem- 
ber or  January;  and  sailing  from  Acapulco  in  March  and 
arriving  at  Manila  in  June.  Sometimes  two  ships  sailed  in 
company,  and  there  were  always  reserve  vessels  at  either  end 
of  the  route  in  case  of  accidents.  Some  of  these  ships  were 
quite  large;  one  of  them  it  is  stated  carried  a  crew  of  1,200 
men.  Usually,  however,  they  were  from  800  to  2,000  tons 
burden,  and  carried  crews  of  from  350  to  600  men,  and  forty 
or  fifty  guns.  Being  king's  ships,  the  captain  was  called 
general,  and  carried  the  royal  standard  of  Spain  at  the  main 
top-gallant  mast. 

Although  the  value  of  the  annual  cargo  was  limited  by 
royal  edict  to  $600,000  in  value,  it  usually  so  far  exceeded 
this  sum  as  to  bring  the  returns  up  to  $3,000,000.  Suppose 
the  goods  to.  have  been  sold  at  Acapulco  at  three  times  their 
cost  at  Manila,  which  is  not  an  unreasonable  supposition  when 
we  consider  the  high  duties,  royalties,  freight,  commissions, 
and  profits,  the  value  of  the  cargo  out  from  Manila  would 
then  be  $1,000,000,  which  is  not  far  from  correct. 

On  clearing  the  islands  the  eastward  bound  ships  sail  north- 
ward to  latitude  30°,  or  beyond,  where  they  meet  the  westerly 
monsoon,  which  carries  them  straight  to  the  coast  of  Cali- 
fornia. The  return  cargo,  aside  from  the  silver  for  which  the 
Manila  goods  were  sold,  amounts  to  little, — some  cochineal, 
American  sweetmeats,  European  millinery  for  the  women  of 
Manila,  and  Spanish  wines,  the  last  mostly  for  the  use  of  the 
priests  for  alleged  sacramental  purposes.  On  leaving  port, 
the  vessel  bound  from  Acapulco  for  Manila  steers  southward 
to  latitude  14°  or  13°,  and  thence  straight  for  the  Ladrones. 
Thus  as  before  remarked  these  Spaniards  seem  to  have  sailed 
entirely  around  the  Hawaiian  islands  every  year  for  150  years 
without  seeing  them. 


A    GLANCE    BACKWARD  341 

The  time  usually  occupied  was  six  months  for  the  eastward 
bound  voyage,  and  three  months  for  the  return.  Extreme 
caution  in  the  navigation  was  exercised  or  affected,  owing 
to  the  great  riches  on  board,  lying  by  unnecessarily,  and 
rarely  carrying  a  main-sail  at  night.  Minute  orders  were 
issued  by  royal  edict  as  to  the  navigation,  the  exact  line  of 
sailing  both  in  going  and  returning,  as  well  as  to  the  quantity, 
kind,  and  disposition  of  the  goods  carried.  On  nearing  the 
California  coast,  the  Manila  ship  watched  eagerly  for  a  float- 
ing sea  plant,  which  the  Spaniards  called  porra,  on  seeing 
which  they  bent  their  course  southward  before  sighting  the 
shore. 

As  for  water  and  fresh  food  for  a  six-months'  continuous 
voyage,  the  galleons  had  their  own  way  of  meeting  the  emer- 
gencies. The  latter,  indeed,  they  met  only  by  endurance; 
they  had  no  fresh  food,  and  consequently  were  seldom  with- 
out scurvy  on  board.  Water  was  carried  not  in  casks  but  in 
earthen  jars,  with  which  every  available  space  on  ship  board 
was  stored,  not  only  between  decks,  but  on  deck,  even  the 
rigging  being  hung  full  of  them,  so  that  a  Manila  ship  on 
embarkation  was  a  queer  looking  craft.  All  that  could  be 
carried  in  this  way,  however,  would  of  course  be  far  from 
sufficient  for  500  or  1,000  men  for  six  months,  but  for  the 
rest  they  must  depend  upon  the  rain,  which  they  say  in  lati- 
tude 30°  never  once  failed  them,  as  water  enough  was  caught 
every  voyage  to  refill  the  jars  several  times. 

For  a  century  or  more  the  Portuguese  derived  no  incon- 
siderable advantage  on  this  "  other  side  of  the  world  "  from 
the  spiritual  patent  of  Pope  Alexander  VI,  regarded  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  valid  by  all  the  European  powers.  On  the  shores 
of  China  the  Portuguese  were  at  first  well  received,  until  their 
impositions  drove  the  Asiatics  to  retaliation.  In  due  time 
the  Dutch  were  upon  them,  and  then  the  ascendency  was 
theirs,  but  only  in  their  turn  later  to  war  on  the  Chinese.  In 
regard  to  the  China  trade  of  this  early  epoch,  a  Hollander  of 
250  years  ago  writes:  "  The  long  residence  of  the  Portuguese 
among  the  Chinese  has  made  them  perfectly  acquainted  with 
the  merchandise  of  the  country,  and  with  the  prices;  they 
know  better  than  other  Europeans  how  to  choose  or  procure 
to  be  fabricated  by  the  Chinese  the  articles  they  want, 
whether  for  Japan,  for  the  Indies,  or  for  Portugal,  as  well 


342  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

with  respect  to  fineness  and  size  as  to  patterns  in  figures.  But 
the  fortifications  they  have  erected  have  caused  suspicions 
that  they  are  contriving  to  act  the  same  part  in  China  as  they 
have  done  in  Malacca  and  other  parts  of  India;  and  this  has 
instigated  the  Chinese  governors  and  mandarins  to  increase 
exactions  on  them,  to  cross  them  on  many  occasions,  and  to 
make  them  consume  their  means  in  expenses,  so  as  nearly  to 
produce  a  stoppage  of  all  trade  between  them." 

Trade  between  China  and  Japan  was  once  limited  to  ten 
Chinese  junks  a  year,  and  all  those  must  enter  and  discharge 
at  one  port,  namely,  that  of  Chapu,  near  Shanghai.  And 
none  but  Chinese  junks  were  allowed  to  engage  in  this  busi- 
ness, hence  Japanese  junks  were  built  more  for  local  and  coast 
trade.  These  Chinese  junks  carried  to  Japan  sugar,  spices, 
dyes,  and  drugs,  and  brought  away  copper,  lacquered  ware, 
dried  fish,  and  whale  oil.  Even  to  this  day  few  furs  are  worn 
in  Japan,  winter  garments  there  being  of  cloth  padded  with 
wool.  In  China,  however,  rich  furs  please  the  rich,  while 
even  the  poor  wear  sheepskin  and  like  coarse  pelts. 

While  the  Manila  trade  with  Mexico  was  thus  continuing 
its  course  through  the  centuries,  the  Spaniards  were  pushing 
their  way  from  the  capital  of  New  Spain  in  every  direction 
for  trade  and  occupation.  Following  the  more  pretentious 
military  or  maritime  expeditions  went  the  missionaries, 
'attended  by  a  few  soldiers,  and  planted  establishments  in 
Texas,  Durango,  and  Lower  and  Upper  California.  These 
in  time  became  trading  posts,  where  were  exchanged  for 
European  or  Mexican  goods  the  products  which  by  the  labor 
of  the  natives  the  missionaries  were  enabled  to  raise. 

Following  the  exploration  of  the  California  coast  by  Viz- 
caino in  1602,  many  projects  were  discussed,  but  little  of 
importance  arose  prior  to  the  expeditions  by  sea  and  land 
which  resulted  in  the  founding  by  Junipero  Serra  of  a  line 
of  missions  from  San  Diego  to  San  Francisco  bay,  and  bring- 
ing those  two  ports  into  commercial  prominence.  In  the  north, 
the  Montreal  fur  traders  had  found  their  way  across  the  moun- 
tains, and  had  established  trading  posts  on  all  the  principal 
streams,  making  their  headquarters  first  at  Astoria,  where  the 
.Northwest  company  encountered  the  Astor  expeditions,  one 
of  which  had  made  its  way  round  Cape  Horn  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia  river,  where  it  was  joined  by  the  Astor  over- 


A    GLANCE    BACKWAED  343 

land  expedition,  which  had  followed  the  track  of  Lewis  and 
Clark  up  the  Missouri  and  down  the  Columbia.  The  Astor 
enterprise  resulting  in  failure,  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  company 
succeeding  by  purchase  to  the  property  and  rights  of  the 
Northwest  Fur  company,  a  metropolitan  post  was  established 
at  Vancouver,  on  the  Columbia,  and  later  removed  to  Vic- 
toria. 

United  States  commercial  intercourse  with  the  eastern 
shores  of  Asia  began  in  earnest  upon  the  conclusion  of  peace 
with  Great  Britain,  following  the  revolutionary  war.  Up  to 
this  time  Chinese  tea,  such  as  that  which  had  caused  the 
trouble  in  Boston  harbor,  had  been  brought  to  America  in 
English  ships.  Our  trade  with  China  began  with  the  ex- 
change of  ginseng  for  tea,  and  soon  extended  to  cotton  and 
crockery.  In  1784  the  Empress,  Captain  Green,  carried  to 
Canton  as  supercargo  Samuel  Shaw,  who  returned  in  the 
Massachusetts,  and  was  United  States  consul  in  China  from 
1790  to  1794. 

In  1785  an  Englishman,  James  Hanna,  sailed  in  a  small 
brig  from  Canton  to  Nootka  sound  to  trade  old  iron  and  coarse 
cloth  for  furs,  which  he  successfully  accomplished.  To  the 
same  place  the  same  year  went  from  London  the  vessels  of  the 
King  George's  Sound  company,  under  exclusive  license 
granted  them  by  the  South  Sea  company,  the  furs  thus  ob- 
tained being  exchanged  for  tea  at  Canton  by  special  per- 
mission of  the  East  India  company.  During  this  epoch  of 
discovery  and  trade,  vessels  of  different  nationalities  found 
their  way  to  the  Northwest  coast,  as  those  of  Cook,  Van- 
couver, La  Perouse,  Hears,  Portlock  and  Dixon,  and  Ken- 
drick  and  Gray,  the  last  named  being  the  first  to  enter  the 
mouth  of  the  Columbia  river,  and  the  first  to  carry  the  flag  of 
the  United  States  round  the  world. 

The  old  whaling  industry  of  Salem  and  New  Bedford  with 
arctic  Alaska  and  Siberia  is  for  the  most  part  a  thing  of  the 
past.  The  voyage  lasted  usually  two  or  three  years,  the  ships 
wintering  at  Honolulu,  though  whalers  in  Central  Pacific 
waters  used  the  harbors  of  San  Diego  and  San  Francisco, 
Sausalito  being  a  favorite  anchorage.  It  was  a  profitable 
business  as  a  rule,  though  not  altogether  a  pleasant  one,  living 
in  the  constant  stench  of  oil  and  blubber  in  a  vessel  of  300  or 
600  tons,  subject  meanwhile  to  the  constant  dangers  of  the 
12 


344  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

deep.  Whalers  endeavored  to  include  among  their  supplies 
BO  far  as  possible  live  animals,  pigs,  and  chickens,  as  well  as 
vegetables  and  fruit.  The  natives  of  the  arctic  coast  buy 
whale-boats  from  the  ships  and  do  quite  a  business  on  their 
own  account.  The  primitive  method  was  to  fasten  inflated 
whole  seal-skins  to  the  harpoon  line,  and  so  float  the  beast. 
But  bombs  shot  from  a  gun  after  the  iron  is  made  fast  to  the 
whale,  and  exploding  inside  the  body,  have  superseded  the 
method  which  made  of  whaling  royal  sport,  degrading  it  to 
mere  butchery.  The  wages  of  the  men  are  on  a  percentage 
basis,  graded  from  the  captain,  who  has  from  one-eighth  to 
one-sixteenth  of  the  cargo,  to  the  steerage  boy  who  is  glad  to 
get  a  two-hundredth. 

On  a  sand-spit  projecting  from  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  at 
the  gateway  of  the  Arctic,  was  a  settlement  of  aboriginal 
buccaneers,  or  pirates,  who  were  scarcely  as  successful  among 
the  whalers  as  were  the  West  India  free  booters  in  their  deal- 
ings with  the  Spaniards.  In  1878  several  vessels  were 
robbed,  and  the  natives  were  having  it  their  own  way,  until 
twenty  warriors  in  three  canoes  boarded  the  brig  William 
H.  Allen,  George  Gilley  captain,  and  undertook  to  capture 
the  ship,  but  were  all  put  to  death,  with  the  loss  of  one  sailor 
killed  and  two  wounded. 

Every  now  and  then  in  the.  world's  history  a  city  or  a  town, 
a  little  seaport  perhaps,  becomes  inspired,  and  the  genius  of 
commerce  or  manufactures,  or  it  may  be  of  art  or  literature 
bursts  forth  unexpectedly,  and  from  no  other  apparent  cause 
than  that  it  is  present  and  must  have  vent;  just  as  genius  in 
the  individual  man  must  find  expression.  Why  were  Venice 
and  Holland  so  much  greater  maritime  nations  than  their 
neighbors?  Not  altogether  as  some  would  say  because  they 
were  born  of  the  sea,  and  must  conquer  it  or  die.  Some 
others  in  their  place  would  have  died.  How  was  it  that  Salem 
and  New  Bedford,  more  than  other  towns  on  the  coast  of 
New  England  achieved  supremacy  in  the  Pacific?  This  is 
what  George  Bachelor  says  of  it:  "  The  foreign  commerce 
which  sprang  up  in  the  last  century  in  Salem  was  the  cause 
of  a  wonderful  intellectual  and  moral  stimulus,  not  yet  spent. 
After  a  century  of  comparative  quiet,  the  citizens  of  this 
little  town  were  suddenly  dispersed  to  every  part  of  the 
oriental  world,  and  to  every  nook  of  barbarism  which  had  a 


A    GLANCE    BACKWARD  345 

market  and  a  shore.  The  borders  of  the  commercial  world 
received  sudden  enlargement,  and  the  boundaries  of  the  intel- 
lectual world  underwent  a  similar  expansion.  This  reward 
of  enterprise  might  be  the  discovery  of  an  island  in  which 
wild  pepper  enough  to  load  a  ship  might  be  had  almost  for 
the  asking,  or  of  forests  where  precious  gums  had  no  com- 
mercial value,  or  spice  islands,  unvisited  and  unvexed  by 
civilization.  Every  ship-master  and  every  mariner  returning 
on  a  richly  loaded  ship  was  the  owner  of  valuable  knowledge. 
In  those  days  crews  were  made  up  of  Salem  boys,  every  one 
of  whom  expected  to  become  an  East  India  merchant.  When 
a  captain  was  asked  at  Manila  how  he  contrived  to  find  his 
way  in  the  teeth  of  a  northeast  monsoon  by  mere  dead- 
reckoning,  he  replied  that  he  had  a  crew  of  twelve  men,  any 
of  whom  could  take  a  lunar  observation  as  well,  for  all  prac- 
tical purposes,  as  Sir  Isaac  Newton  himself.  Rival  mer- 
chants sometimes  drove  the  work  of  preparation  night  and 
day,  when  virgin  markets  had  favors  to  be  won,  and  ships 
which  set  out  for  unknown  ports  were  watched  when  they 
slipped  their  cables  and  sailed  away  by  night,  and  dogged  for 
months  on  the  high  seas,  in  the  hope  of  discovering  the 
secret,  well  kept  by  the  owner  and  crew.  Every  man  on 
board  was  allowed  a  certain  space  for  his  own  little  venture. 
People  in  other  pursuits,  not  excepting  the  merchant's  min- 
ister, intrusted  their  savings  to  the  supercargo,  and  watched 
eagerly  the  result  of  their  adventure.  This  great  mental  ac- 
tivity, the  profuse  stores  of  knowledge  brought  by  every 
ship's  crew  and  distributed,  together  with  India  shawls,  blue 
china,  and  unheard  of  curiosities  from  every  savage  shore, 
gave  the  community  a  rare  alertness  of  intellect." 

English  is  the  commercial  language  of  the  world,  and  is 
spoken  in  all  the  free  ports  of  Asia,  and  in  all  the  larger  mer- 
cantile and  manufacturing  houses  of  Spanish  America.  In 
the  early  New  England  trade  with  the  Pacific,  every  sailor 
was  trained  to  become  a  ship-master.  He  was  allowed  free 
freight  to  the  amount  of  800  pounds  for  goods  to  trade  on  his 
own  account,  or  given  a  percentage  on  the  profits  of  the 
voyage. 

In  Cleveland's  Voyages  of  a  Merchant  Navigator,  it  is  writ- 
ten: "  Salem  ships  led  the  way  round  the  cape  of  Good  Hope 
to  the  Isle  of  France,  India,  and  China.  They  were  the  first 


346  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

to  display  the  American  flag  and  open  trade  at  Calcutta, 
Bombay,  Sumatra,  Zanzibar,  Madagascar,  Australia,  Batavia, 
Mocha,  and  St  Petersburg.  The  adventures  of  her  brave  mar- 
iners in  unknown  seas,  their  encounters  with  pirates  and  sav- 
age tribes,  their  hair-breadth  escapes,  their  tales  of  imprison- 
ment and  suffering  in  the  prisons  of  France,  Spain,  and 
South  America,  would  make  a  story  which  could  not  be  sur- 
passed in  romantic  and  pathetic  interest." 

With  Captain  Cook  in  his  last  voyage,  as  corporal  of 
marines,  was  John  Ledyard,  who  wrote  a  narrative  of  what 
he  saw,  which  was  published  at  Hartford,  Connecticut.  The 
New  Zealanders  he  found  to  be  an  athletic  people,  living  in  a 
temperate  climate,  and  possessed  of  warm  hearts  and  tender 
sensibilities,  with  an  eager  appetite  for  human  flesh,  while 
the  blood  of  enemies  was  their  most  delightful  drink.  In 
fact  it  was  afterward  discovered  that  cannibalism  was  com- 
mon throughout  all  the  islands  and  the  eastern  shore-line  of 
the  Pacific.  An  English  sailor  here  fell  in  love  with  a  native 
beauty,  and  to  remain  with  her  he  deserted  his  ship  when 
about  to  sail,  but  was  captured  and  brought  on  board. 

It  was  during  this  voyage  that  John  Ledyard  conceived  the 
idea  of  setting  in  motion  those  commercial  currents  which  led 
to  a  subsequent  extensive  traffic,  namely,  the  purchase  of  furs 
with  trinkets  on  the  Northwest  coast  and  Alaska,  to  be  ex- 
changed in  China  for  tea  and  silks  for  the  home  market. 
This  traffic,  and  the  north  Pacific  whale  fisheries,  made  New 
England  comparatively  rich  long  before  the  buzzing  of  spin- 
dles set  in.  Says  this  traveller  in  his  narrative,  writing  at 
Nootka  sound  in  1777,  "  The  light  in  which  this  country  will 
appear  to  most  advantage  respects  the  variety  of  the  animals 
and  the  richness  of  their  furs.  They  have  foxes,  sables, 
hares,  marmosets,  ermines,  weazles,  bears,  wolves,  deer,  moose, 
dogs,  otters,  beavers,  and  a  species  of  weazle  called  the  glut- 
ton. The  skin  of  this  animal  was  sold  at  Kamchatka,  a 
Russian  factory  on  the  Asiatic  coast,  for  sixty  rubles,  which 
is  near  twelve  guineas,  and  had  it  been  sold  in  China  it  would 
have  been  worth  thirty  guineas.  We  purchased  while  here 
about  1,500  beaver,  besides  other  skins,  but  took  none  but 
the  best,  having  no  thoughts  at  that  time  of  using  them  to 
any  other  advantage  than  converting  them  to  the  purposes 
of  clothing;  but  it  afterwards  happened  that  skins  which  did 


A    (J  LANCE    BACKWARD  347 

not  cost  the  purchaser  six  pence  sterling  sold  in  China  for  one 
hundred  dollars.  Neither  did  we  purchase  a  quarter  part  of 
the  beaver  and  other  fur  skins  we  might  have  done,  and 
most  certainly  should  have  done,  had  we  known  of  meeting 
the  opportunity  of  disposing  of  them  to  such  astonishing 
profit." 

John  Ledyard  was  regarded  by  many  men  of  his  day  as 
visionary,  and  by  some  as  of  unsound  mind.  Such  is  often 
the  case  when  one  leaves  conventional  paths,  or  dares  to  have 
ideas  and  opinions  out  of  the  common.  As  the  war  for  inde- 
pendence came  to  a  close  his  active  brain  was  full  of  projects, 
most  of  them  in  the  form  of  mercantile  adventure  in  the  Pa- 
cific. He  had  experience  but  no  money.  He  sought  to  in- 
terest merchants  and  shipping-men  in  a  trading  expedition 
to  the  Northwest  coast.  He  would  himself  ship  in  any 
capacity,  from  captain  to  common  sailor.  He  knew  where 
dimes  could  be  turned  into  dollars,  and  how  to  do  it.  No 
such  adventure  had  at  that  time  been  attempted,  either  in 
America  or  Europe,  though  later  they  were  common  enough. 
He  first  applied  to  the  New  York  merchants,  but  they  thought 
his  scheme  wild.  At  Philadelphia  he  succeeded  in  gaining 
the  attention  of  Robert  Morris,  who  promised  the  outfit  for 
a  voyage.  Unable  to  find  in  Philadelphia  a  suitable  vessel, 
Ledyard  went  to  Boston  and  New  London  to  buy  one,  but 
met  with  no  better  success.  A  year  passed  by  in  desultory 
efforts,  and  Morris  finally  withdrew  from  the  project. 
•  Ledyard  sought  to  interest  others,  but  the  very  brilliancy 
of  his  projects  defeated  his  efforts.  Like  the  man  who  could 
not  sell  good  sovereigns  for  a  shilling,  he  proposed  to  do  more 
than  he  could  convince  people  was  possible.  Yet  what  he 
said  was  true,  and  success  as  certain  as  in  ordinary  business; 
load  ships  with  Indian  goods,  establish  forts  and  factories  on 
the  American  coast,  and  go  to  China  for  return  cargo.  That 
and  more  was  successfully  done  two  or  three  decades  later. 
Much  cast  down  by  his  failures  in  America,  Ledyard  went  to 
Europe,  where  he  learned  that  a  Russian  ship  had  been  sent 
into  the  Pacific,  and  a  successful  voyage  had  been  made 
thither  by  a  vessel  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  company.  Under  the 
auspices  of  the  French  king,  Ledyard  was  promised  a  vessel 
of  400  tons,  but  failed  to  obtain  it.  At  Paris  he  found  a 
warm  friend  and  advocate  in  Mr  Jefferson,  the  American 


348  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

minister.  He  also  became  well  acquainted  with  the  marquis 
Lafayette,  Paul  Jones,  and  others.  Jones  became  greatly 
interested  in  the  Pacific  project,  and  even  advanced  money 
for  supplies,  but  finally  gave  it  up.  Ledyard  then  went  to 
Holland,  and  England,  and  finally,  one  flattering  vision  after 
another  vanishing  in  air,  he  became  a  wanderer  over  the 
earth,  and  in  1788  died  in  Egypt  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight 
years. 

Never  a  sailor,  whether  common  or  uncommon,  whether 
simple  Jack  Tar  or  admiral,  or  other  captain  or  commander, 
made  a  voyage  by  sea  and  wrote  a  book  so  small  which  says  so 
much  and  of  such  importance,  and  of  such  present  and  last- 
ing value  to  commerce,  particularly  in  the  Pacific,  as  the 
author  of  Two  Years  before  the  Mast,  Eichard  H.  Dana,  a 
Harvard  undergraduate,  who  in  1834  sailed  in  the  trading 
brig  Pilgrim,  from  Boston  for  the  west  coast  of  America. 

Rounding  Cape  Horn  to  Juan  Fernandez  island,  where 
they  stopped  for  water,  the  traders  thereafter  saw  neither 
ship  nor  land  until  they  reached  California,  touching  first  at 
Santa  Barbara,  and  then  at  Monterey,  San  Francisco,  and 
San  Diego.  At  Santa  Barbara,  one  story  adobe  houses  with 
red-tile  roofs  constituted  the  town,  in  the  centre  of  which 
stood  the  presidio,  or  fort,  and  off  toward  the  mountains  was 
the  mission.  All  of  these  mission  towns  were  much  alike, 
a  bunch  of  adobe  houses  with  the  presidio  in  the  centre,  or 
the  presidio  surrounded  by  dwelling  houses;  the  mission  was 
always  some  distance  away,  so  that  the  priests  and  neophytes 
should  not  be  disturbed  by  the  soldiers  and  towns  people. 
Monterey,  the  capital,  then  made  as  good  an  appearance  as 
any  of  the  coast  towns,  four  lines  of  one-story  plastered 
houses  surrounding  a  square,  in  which  were  six  or  eight 
cannon. 

The  cargo  of  the  Pilgrim  consisted  of  groceries,  drygoods, 
and  liquors,  the  last  sold  only  by  the  cask, — crockery,  hard- 
ware, and  tin  utensils;  jewelry  and  furniture;  a  complete 
general  merchandise  store,  "  in  fact,  every  thing  that  can  be 
imagined,  from  Chinese  fire  works  to  English  cart-wheels,  of 
which  we  had  a  dozen  pairs  with  their  iron  rims  on."  Sam- 
ples were  spread  out  in  the  steerage,  which  was  fitted  up  as 
a  trade-room,  and  with  the  supercargo's  clerk  as  store-keeper, 
business  began.  The  boats  of  the  traders  plied  constantly 


A    GLANCE    BACKWARD  349 

between  ship  and  shore,  carrying  customers,  the  Californians 
having  no  boats  of  their  own.  These  goods  were  sold  at 
about  300  per  cent  advance  on  Boston  prices,  and  paid  for  in 
silver,  or  hides  at  two  dollars  each,  and  tallow.  Silver  coin 
was  plentiful,  particularly  Mexican  dollars  and  half-dollars. 

To  a  limited  extent  there  were  here  for  sale  furs,  brought 
in  from  over  the  sierra  by  American  trappers,  who  usually 
spent  the  proceeds  of  their  hunt  on  the  fair  senoritas  before 
returning  to  the  interior.  The  people  were  averse  to  work, 
to  do  any  thing  in  fact  that  could  not  be  done  on  horseback, 
like  stock-raising.  Bull-baiting  and  cock-fighting  they  en- 
joyed, also  gambling  and  fandangoes.  Hides  were  loaded 
from  ships  in  small  boats,  as  there  were  no  wharves.  A  ship 
carried  from  15,000  to  40,000  hides.  There  were  several 
other  vessels  on  the  coast,  English  and  American,  engaged  in 
the  same  trade,  between  which  there  was  some  competition. 
Many  of  these  traders  made  their  rendezvous  at  the  Hawaiian, 
islands,  of  whose  natives  their  crew  was  often  largely  com- 
posed. San  Diego  was  the  depot  for  all  the  vessels  engaged 
in  this  trade  on  the  California  coast.  The  situation  was  con- 
venient, and  the  harbor  safe.  Every  shipping  company  had 
its  warehouse  there,  for  storing  and  packing  goods,  coming 
and  going.  "  For  landing  and  taking  on  board  hides  "  says 
Dana,  "  San  Diego  is  decidedly  the  best  place  in  California. 
The  harbor  is  small  and  land-locked;  there  is  no  surf;  the 
vessels  lie  within  a  cable's  length  of  the  beach;  and  the  beach 
itself  is  smooth  hard  sand,  without  rocks  or  stones." 

Along  the  coast,  except  at  San  Diego  and  San  Francisco, 
loading  and  unloading  was  done  in  the  surf.  In  bringing 
off  the  hides  from  the  shore,  two  men  with  their  trousers 
rolled  up  stood  on  either  side  of  the  small  boat,  holding  it  in 
position  at  a  point  where  every  wave  would  float  it.  "  The 
others  were  running  from  the  boat  to  the  bank,  upon  which 
out  of  the  reach  of  the  water,  was  a  pile  of  dry  bullock's  hides, 
nearly  as  stiff  as  boards.  These  they  took  upon  their 
backs,  one  or  two  at  a  time,  and  carried  them  down  to  the 
boat,  where  one  of  their  number  stowed  them  away. 

" '  Well,  Dana,'  said  the  second  mate  to  me,  *  this  does  not 
look  much  like  Cambridge  college,  does  it?  This  is  what  I 
call  head  work.' " 

At  San  Juan  Capistrano  another  method  was  employed  to 


350  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

get  the  hides  from  the  ox-carts  to  the  small  boats.  They 
were  hauled  to  the  top  of  a  bluff  overlooking  the  sea,  and 
400  feet  above  it.  "Down  this  height,  one  at  a  time,  we 
pitched  the  hides,  throwing  them  as  far  out  into  the  air  as  we 
could;  and  as  they  were  all  large,  stiff,  and  doubled,  like  the 
cover  of  a  book,  the  wind  took  them,  and  they  swayed  and 
eddied  about,  plunging  and  rising  in  the  air  like  a  kite  when 
it  has  broken  its  string.  As  it  was  low  tide  there  was  no  dan- 
ger of  their  falling  into  the  water,  and  as  fast  as  they  came 
to  ground  the  men  below  picked  them  up,  and  taking 
them  on  their  heads  walked  off  with  them  to  the  boat.  It 
was  really  a  picturesque  sight;  the  great  height,  the  scaling 
of  the  hides,  and  the  continual  walking  to  and  fro  of  the 
men,  who  looked  like  mites  on  the  beach." 

Kanakas,  the  Hawaiian  islanders  were  called  on  the  Pacific 
American  coast,  where  they  were  employed  in  early  times  in 
the  mines  and  on  farms,  as  well  as  about  the  water  in  boats 
and  on  the  beach.  They  were  lazy  and  thriftless,  far  below 
the  Chinese  in  skill  and  application.  Dana  gives  a  picture 
of  some  he  saw  at  San  'Diego  in  1835,  "  A  Eussian  discovery- 
ship,  which  had  been  in  this  port  a  few  years  before,  had  built 
a  large  oven  for  baking  bread,  and  went  away,  leaving  it 
standing.  This,  the  Sandwich  islanders  took  possession  of, 
and  had  kept  ever  since  undisturbed.  It  was  big  enough  to 
hold  six  or  eight  men, — that  is,  it  was  as  large  as  a  ship's 
forecastle;  had  a  door  at  the  side,  and  a  venthole  at  the  top. 
They  covered  it  with  Oahu  mats,  for  a  carpet;  stopped  up  the 
vent-hole  in  bad  weather,  and  made  it  their  headquarters. 
It  was  now  inhabited  by  as  many  as  a  dozen  or  twenty  men, 
who  lived  there  in  complete  idleness, — drinking,  playing 
cards,  and  carousing  in  every  way.  They  bought  a  bullock 
once  a  week,  which  kept  them  in  meat,  and  one  of  them  went 
up  to  the  town  every  day  to  get  fruit  liquor  and  provisions. 
Besides  this,  they  had  bought  a  cask  of  shipbread,  and  a  barrel 
of  flour  from  the  Lagoda,  before  she  sailed.  There  they  lived, 
having  a  grand  time  and  caring  for  nobody.  The  captain 
was  anxious  to  get  three  or  four  of  them  to  come  on  board 
the  Pilgrim,  as  we  were  so  much  diminished  in  numbers; 
and  went  up  to  the  oven,  and  spent  an  hour  or  two  trying  to 
negotiate  with  them.  One  of  them,  a  finely  built,  active, 
strong,  and  intelligent  fellow,  who  was  a  sort  of  king  among 


A    GLANCE    BACKWARD  351 

them,  acted  as  spokesman.  He  was  called  Mannini,  or  rather, 
out  of  compliment  to  his  known  importance  and  influence, 
Mister  Mannini,  and  was  known  all  over  California.  Through 
him,  the  captain  offered  them  fifteen  dollars  a  month,  and  one 
month's  pay  in  advance;  but  it  was  like  throwing  pearls  be- 
fore swine,  or  rather  carrying  coals  to  Newcastle.  So  long 
as  they  had  money,  they  would  not  work  for  fifty  dollars  a 
month,  and  when  their  money  was  gone,  they  would  work  for 
ten. 

" '  What  do  you  do  here,  Mr  Mannini? '  said  the  captain. 

" '  Oh,  we  play  cards,  get  drunk,  smoke,  do  anything  we're 
a  mind  to.' 

" '  Don't  you  want  to  come  aboard  and  work? ' 

"'Aole!  aole  make  make  makou  i  ka  hana.  Now,  got 
plenty  money;  no  good  work.  Mamule,  money  pau — all  gone. 
Ah!  very  good,  work! — maikai,  hana  hana  nui.' 

" '  But  you'll  spend  all  your  money  in  this  way,'  said  the 
captain. 

"'Aye!  me  know  that.  By-'em-by  money  pau — all  gone; 
then  Kanaka  work  plenty.' 

"  This  was  a  hopeless  case,  and  the  captain  left  them,  to 
wait  patiently  until  their  money  was  gone." 

An  ancient  islander  at  San  Diego,  whose  front  teeth  had 
been  knocked  out  by  his  parents  by  way  of  lamentations  over 
the  death  of  King  Kamehameha  I,  caused  much  amusement. 
"  We  used  to  tell  him  ",  Dana  says,  "  that  he  ate  Captain 
Cook,  and  lost  his  teeth  in  that  way." 

" '  Aole,  no!  Me  no  eat  Captain  Cook.  Me  pikinini,  small, 
so  high,  no  more!  My  father  see  Captain  Cook;  me,  no.' 

" '  Yes,  your  people  eat  Captain  Cook.' 

" t  No,  New  Zealand  Kanaka  eat  white  man;  Sandwich 
island  Kanaka,  no.  Sandwich  island  Kanaka  ua  like  pu  na 
haole,  all'e  same  a'  you.' 

"  Their  customs  and  manner  of  treating  one  another,  show 
a  simple,  primitive  generosity,  which  is  truly  delightful;  and 
which  is  often  a  reproach  to  our  own  people.  Whatever  one 
has  they  all  have.  Money,  food,  clothes,  they  share  wth  one 
another;  even  to  the  last  piece  of  tobacco  to  put  in  their  pipes. 
I  once  heard  old  Mr  Bingham  say,  with  the  highest  indigna- 
tion, to  a  Yankee  trader  who  was  trying  to  persuade  him  to 
keep  his  money  to  himself,  '  No!  Me  no  all'e  same  a'  you! — 


352  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Suppose  one  got  money,  all  got  money.  You, — suppose  one 
got  money — lock  him  up  in  chest.  No  good.  Kanaka  all'e 
same  a'  one! '  This  principle  they  carry  so  far  that  none  of 
them  will  eat  any  thing  in  sight  of  others  without  offering 
it  all  round.  I  have  seen  one  of  them  break  a  biscuit,  which 
had  been  given  him,  into  five  parts,  at  a  time  when  I  knew  he 
was  on  a  very  short  allowance,  as  there  was  but  little  to  eat 
on  the  beach." 

When  Mr  Dana  returned  to  Harvard  to  complete  his  course, 
let  us  hope  his  history  marks  were  raised,  and  that  he  in  due 
time  learned  that  Francis  Drake  never  entered  San  Francisco 
bay,  that  Cortes  never  was  in  that  section  of  the  world,  and 
that  no  Jesuits,  nor  any  other  order  of  friars  except  the  Fran- 
ciscans, ever  established  a  mission  in  Alta  California.  It  is 
well  to  travel,  to  observe,  to  learn,  to  report,  but  Cambridge 
had  better  schoolmasters  than  California  in  the  year  1835, 
and  no  doubt  Mr  Dana  made  use  of  them  after  the  publica- 
tion of  his  matchless  little  book. 

The  voyages  of  the  Russians  from  north-eastern  Asia  began 
by  order  of  the  tsar  Alexis  in  1648,  in  seven  kotches,  or  small 
decked  boats,  sent  in  search  of  the  mouth  of  the  Anadir,  and 
of  which  Simon  Deshnef  gives  an  account.  The  Kurile 
islands  were  first  seen  from  this  direction  in  1706,  and  ten 
years  later  was  made  the  first  voyage  from  Okhotsk  to  Kam- 
chatka, an  account  of  which  is  given  in  Mulleins  Voyages.  In 
1727  Vitus  Bering  coasted  northward  from  Kamchatka  far 
enough  to  satisfy  himself  that  Asia  and  America  were  not 
united.  Other  expeditions  surveyed  the  coast  about  this 
time,  by  land  and  sea,  in  which  the  sliore  of  America  was 
described,  and  the  strait  mapped  by  Mikhoil  Goozdef. 

The  voyage  of  Vitus  Bering,  resulting  in  the  discovery  and 
occupation  by  Russians  of  north  westernmost  America,  was 
made  by  order  of  the  empress  Elizabeth  in  1740.  Following 
the  swarming  of  the  promyshleniki  over  the  islands  and  main 
land  of  Alaska,  the  more  immediate  result  of  Bering's  ex- 
plorations were  several  Russian  voyages  of  discovery,  among 
them  the  expedition  of  Korovin  in  1762,  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Kamchatka  river  to  Umnak  island;  the  voyage  of  Glottof 
to  Unalaska  and  Kadiak;  the  voyage  of  Lieutenant  Synd  in 
1764;  the  government  expedition  to  Unalaska  under  Kre- 
nitzin,  and  the  surveying  expedition  of  Zaikof  to  Copper 


A    GLANCE    BACKWARD  353 

island,  not  to  mention  the  adventures  of  Benyovski,  Delarof, 
Pribylof,  Shelikof,  and  others,  mostly  for  furs. 

Among  the  European  powers  first  officially  to  visit  and  ob- 
serve what  Russia  was  doing  in  this  quarter  was  Spain,  Juan 
Perez  appearing  in  the  ship  Santiago,  under  instructions  from 
Revilla  Gigedo  in  1774,  the  Sonora,  Bodega  y  Cuadra  com- 
mander, coming  to  Alaska  the  following  year.  England  put 
in  an  appearance  in  the  person  of  Captain  Cook,  and  after 
him  came  the  Frenchmen  La  Perouse  and  Marchand;  more 
Englishmen,  as  Meares  and  Portlock  and  Dixon;  other  Span- 
iards— Martinez,  Haro,  and  Fidalgo  with  other  scientific  and 
commercial  expeditions  like  those  of  Vancouver  and  Billings, 
not  to  mention  the  colonization,  mission,  and  fur-hunting 
efforts  of  the  Russians  themselves  in  the  persons  of  Shelikof, 
Baranof,  and  Konovalof.  Meanwhile  were  accomplished  the 
organization  of  the  Russian  American  Fur  company,  the 
founding  of  Sitka,  the  settlement  of  Yakutat  bay,  and  the 
later  visits  of  Krusenstern,  Lisiansky,  Rezanof,  Golovin, 
Astor's  ship  Enterprise,  and  Kotzebue. 

Attention  has  been  frequently  drawn  to  the  facility  with 
which  railway  and  telegraph  lines  can  be  carried  across 
Bering  strait.  An  expedition  was  sent  out  in  1865  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Union  Telegraph  company  for  the  survey 
and  construction  of  a  telegraph  line  to  Sitka,  and  thence  to 
the  continent  of  Asia.  After  two  years  of  effort  and  an  ex- 
penditure of  $3,000,000  the  enterprise  was  abandoned,  chiefly 
owing  to  the  successful  laying  of  the  Atlantic  cable  in  the 
meantime. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

SOUTH    SEA    ISLES 

THE  islands  of  the  south  Pacific  are  many,  and  have  many 
names,  both  as  groups  and  individually,  though  some  have 
none  at  all,  and  indeed  are  not  worth  naming.  There  are 
Micronesia,  or  '  little  islands '  ;  Polynesia,  or  '  many  islands '  ; 
Melanesia,  another  '  many  islands '  ;  and  Gilbert  and  Philip, 
and  Caroline  and  Marianne,  and  Solomon,  and  the  rest,  not 
to  mention  those  having  true  names,  as  Tonga,  Samoa,  Tahiti, 
and  Tokelan. 

Speaking  generally,  the  terms  Polynesia,  and  South  sea  isl- 
ands, signify  those  innumerable  clusters  lying  mostly  south  of 
the  equator,  and  altogether  south  of  north  latitude  10°.  Con- 
spicuous among  them  are  Tahiti,  called  by  Captain  Cook 
Otaheite,  108  miles  in  circumference,  in  the  form  of  two  penin- 
sulas united  by  an  isthmus,  with  a  population  early  in  the 
century  of  10,000;  the  Society  islands,  population  20,000; 
the  Marquesas,  Navigators,  Friendly,  Fiji,  and  other  groups. 
The  Fiji  islands  are  a  valuable  permanent  possession  of  Eng- 
land's, favorable  to  extensive  plantations  of  the  most  varied 
tropical  products,  which  like  those  of  Mauritius  find  a  ready 
market  at  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  as  well  as  in  more  dis- 
tant parts.  The  South  sea  isles  are  many  of  them  of  coral, 
and  round  each  coral  isle  is  a  coral  reef,  one  or  two  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  shore,  against  which  the  waves  perpetually  play, 
rising  into  an  aqueous  wall  ten  or  fifteen  feet  above  the  reef, 
and  forming  a  most  beautiful  border.  Within  the  circle  the 
water  is  still  and  transparent,  so  that  the  bottom,  paved  with 
coral  of  every  shape  and  hue,  with  the  sportive  fishes,  is 
plainly  visible.  In  most  cases  there  is  a  gateway  through 
which  ships  may  enter  the  sparkling  arena,  and  approach  the 
island.  The  islands  are  overspread  for  the  most  part  with  a 
rich  soil,  with  high  mountains  covered  with  verdure,  and  luxu- 

354 


SOUTH  SEA  ISLES  355 

riant  valleys  equal  to  any  Persian  paradise.  The  air  is  hot 
and  humid,  enervating  to  Europeans  but  satisfying  to  the 
natives.  Whirlwinds,  hurricanes,  and  other  destructive  storms 
are  frequent,  uprooting  trees  and  demolishing  dwellings;  but 
trees  quickly  grow  again,  and  houses  if  sufficiently  humble 
may  be  reconstructed.  The  rainy  season  is  from  December  to 
March,  during  which  the  water  and  lightning  play  mad 
pranks. 

Vegetable  life  abounds.  The  trees  are  many,  some  of  them 
remarkable  for  size,  beauty,  or  usefulness.  The  foliage  of 
the  undergrowth  is  luxuriant  and  mostly  evergreen,  while 
fruits  and  flowers  are  everywhere.  A  fine  timber  tree  is  the 
apape,  rearing  to  a  height  of  fifty  feet  a  straight  and  branch- 
less trunk  of  salmon-color,  two  or  three  feet  thick,  and 
crowned  by  a  tuft  of  pale  green  leaves.  The  tamanu  is  more 
like  mahogany;  the  hutu  resembles  the  magnolia;  while  the 
aoa  is  not  unlike  the  banian.  These  more  particularly  on  the 
lower  levels.  In  the  mountains  the  candle-nut  is  conspicuous, 
its  white  leaves  lighting  up  the  dark  rich  foliage  of  the  forest. 
It  is  the  nut,  however,  and  not  the  leaves  which  constitutes 
the  candle,  being  about  the  size  of  a  walnut,  and  with  the 
shell  removed  and  strung  on  the  rib  of  a  cocoanut  leaf,  is 
used  as  a  candle.  A  fine  lamp-black  is  also  made  from  the 
nut,  which  is  used  in  painting  canoes. 

Several  foreign  plants,  fruit-trees  and  others,  were  intro- 
duced to  these  islands  by  usurpers  and  navigators.  Thus  to 
the  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  and  Dutch  the  islands  are  indebted 
for  the  pineapple,  fig,  citron,  and  coffee  plants,  while  Cook, 
Bligh,  and  Vancouver  brought  the  vine,  the  orange,  lime,  and 
others.  Native  plants  are  many  and  prolific,  as  the  vi,  a  bright 
yellow  plum;  the  mape,  a  kind  of  chestnut.  From  the  auti, 
or  paper  mulberry,  is  made  cloth;  the  taro  is  an  esculent  root, 
prepared  for  eating  like  the  bread-fruit;  the  yam  is  indigenous; 
sweet-potatoes  are  carefully  cultivated;  the  banana  is  highly 
prized,  as  is  also  arrow-root,  though  the  care  of  the  latter  in- 
volves too  much  labor  for  the  indolent  natives. 

To  the  South  sea  islander  the  bread-fruit  tree  is  the  most 
useful,  as  indeed  it  is  among  the  most  beautiful  of  plants. 
Its  height  is  usually  fifty  or  sixty  feet,  with  a  trunk  two  or 
three  feet  in  diameter;  leaves  of  glossy  dark  green,  indented 
like  a  fig-leaf,  and  more  than  a  foot  long;  fruit  oval,  and  six 


356  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

inches  thick.  It  is  covered  with  a  rough  rind,  at  first  of  a 
pea-green,  then  brown,  and  when  fully  ripe  of  a  rich  yellow; 
it  grows  either  singly  or  in  clusters  of  two  or  three,  at  the 
end  of  the  branch,  to  which  it  is  attached  by  a  short  thick  stalk. 
Several  hundred  of  these  clusters  sometimes  grow  on  a  single 
tree,  in  beautiful  and  harmonious  contrast  with  the  surround- 
ings. There  are  two  or  three  crops  a  year.  The  fruit  is  never 
eaten  uncooked;  it  is  usually  baked  in  an  oven  of  heated 
stones,  and  eaten  as  bread.  The  tree  is  to  the  South  sea  isl- 
ander what  the  pulque  plant  is  to  the  Mexican,  except  that  the 
one  furnishes  bread  while  the  other  gives  drink;  the  trunk 
of  the  bread-fruit  tree  makes  good  timber,  the  wood  being  in 
color  dark  and  rich,  and  of  tough  fibre.  As  there  are  many 
varieties  of  the  tree,  the  wood  is  put  to  various  uses,  being 
good  for  building,  for  furniture,  canoes,  implements;  in  fact 
for  all  purposes.  From  the  bark  of  the  young  branches  is 
made  cloth,  while  from  the  bark  of  the  trunk  exudes  a  gum 
with  which  leaks  in  canoes  are  stopped.  Cloth  is  also  made 
from  the  inner  bark  of  the  Chinese  mulberry  and  the  fig  tree. 

The  cocoanut,  next  to  the  bread-fruit  tree,  is  the  most  valu- 
able plant  of  the  South  sea.  A  cylindrical  trunk  three  or  four 
feet  in  diameter  and  tapering  to  the  top,  composed  of  small 
tubes  enclosed  in  rough  bark,  rises  erect  without  a  branch  to  a 
height  of  60  or  70  feet,  and  is  topped  with  long  green  leaves 
and  bunches  of  fruit.  It  flourishes  under  almost  any  circum- 
stances, on  a  barren  strand,  in  a  marsh,  or  on  the  sun-beaten 
mountain  side,  but  is  by  no  means  averse  to  the  fertile  valleys. 
Mats,  baskets,  bonnets,  and  screens  are  made  of  the  stalks  of 
the  leaves,  which  are  sometimes  fifteen  feet  long. 

Early  voyagers  suffered  severely  from  hunger  thirst  and 
sickness  in  navigating  these  waters,  being  mostly  strange  to 
them,  and  such  islands  as  bring  relief  being  often  wide  apart, 
and  their  existence  or  whereabouts  not  known.  Scurvy,  that 
dire  dread  of  the  sailor,  which  nothing  but  green  food  will 
keep  away  or  cure,  caused  thousands  thus  to  perish.  Navar- 
rete  says  that  Quiros  and  some  other  captains  distilled  fresh 
from  salt  water  on  a  scale  sufficiently  large  for  the  require- 
ments of  the  crew;  but  if  done  at  all  the  way  of  it  was  not 
known  to  many. 

Before  the  English  came  the  Spaniards  had  seen  and  named 
Tahiti  and  Sagittaria,  and  the  New  Hebrides  of  Cook  they 


SOUTH  SEA  ISLES  357 

had  called  the  archipelago  del  Espiritu  Santo.  After  the  ex- 
pedition of  Anton  Abreu,  and  the  establishment  of  Albu- 
querque in  Malacca  in  1511,  the  Malay  archipelago,  dimly  de- 
picted by  Ptolemy,  assumed  more  definite  form.  As  the  Dutch 
gained  the  ascendency  in  the  Moluccas,  Australia  began  to 
emerge  from  the  mists  of  the  ages,  so  as  to  become  visible  to 
the  eyes  of  the  geographers.  Then  too  began  the  epoch  of 
Abel  Tasman  who  had  for  his  field  of  effort  the  Moluccas,  or 
Spice  islands,  a  term  once  applied  to  all  the  islands  of  the 
East  Indian  archipelago  between  Celebes  and  New  Guinea, 
but  later  restricted  to  the  Ternate  group,  the  Batchian  Obi 
Sula  Ambon  and  other  groups,  and  the  Banda  islands,  the  last 
named  famous  over  all  others  for  their  excellent  spices  and 
nutmegs. 

Alvaro  Mendano,  who  crossed  the  Pacific  in  1595,  touched 
at  the  Marquesas,  and  named  them  in  honor  of  his  patron, 
the  marques  Mendoza,  viceroy  of  Peru.  After  the  death  of 
Mendano  his  wife,  Isabella  Baretos,  continued  his  enterprises 
in  the  Pacific  until  1596.  The  isle  of  Papua,  or  New  Guinea, 
and  the  island  of  New  Holland  were  discovered  in  the  early 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  voyage  of  Jorge  de  Menezes 
was  made  in  1526,  and  that  of  Alvaro  de  Saavedra  to  Papua  in 
1528,  each  of  whom  discovered  many  islands. 

Among  the  islanders,  thievery  in  early  times  was  as  com- 
mon as  it  is  among  the  continental  powers  of  the  present  day, 
as  we  have  seen.  Besides  the  Marianne  islands  many  another 
was  called  Ladrones,  until  of  Thieves  island  there  were  so 
many  that  some  of  the  names  had  to  be  changed.  Now  we 
must  not  blame  the  savages  for  stealing  from  the  ships,  for 
they  knew  no  better;  the  mother  praised  her  boy  for  bring- 
ing off  good  plunder;  he  was  never  troubled  by  an  accus- 
ing conscience  except  when  he  came  home  empty  handed. 
Nor  must  we  blame  the  powers  of  Europe  for  stealing  Asias 
and  Africas,  for  they  know  no  better;  great  praise  they  all 
receive  for  much  killing  and  stealing,  praise  from  priests  and 
people,  nor  has  one  of  them  ever  a  troubled  conscience,  ex- 
cept when  his  neighbor  gets  more  than  he. 

Cook  found  Tahiti  under  the  rule  of  two  feudal  families, 
each  with  a  king  at  their  head,  and  the  people  enjoying  many 
blessings,  as  cannibalism,  circumcision,  tattooing,  polygamy, 
the  taboo,  and  kawa,  an  intoxicating  drink  which  they  were 


358  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

induced  by  the  temperance  men  and  missionaries  to  abandon 
when  civilization  brought  them  rum,  which  they  liked  better. 
The  Australians  were  as  low  in  the  scale  of  humanity  as  the 
Patagonians  or  Californians.  They  were  of  dark  complexion, 
coarse  features,  and  had  rude  dwellings  and  implements.  The 
Hawaiians  he  fancied  of  the  same  race  as  the  South  sea  isl- 
anders, all  having  the  same  accomplishments,  and  indulging 
in  the  same  kinds  of  food  and  drink.  When  the  king  of  Fiji 
died,  ten  other  men  must  die  and  keep  him  company;  so  it 
was  when  the  king  of  Hawaii  departed  this  life,  he  was  not 
permitted  to  go  alone. 

Micronesia  has  a  population  of  94,372,  which,  apportioned 
properly  among  the  four  principal  groups  gives  to  the  Mar- 
shall islands  13,000;  to  the  Gilbert  islands  35,200;  Carolines, 
36,000;  Ladrones,  10,172.  The  natives  of  the  Society  islands 
are  well-formed,  tall,  and  strong;  complexion  olive,  black 
coarse  hair,  the  men  wearing  it  long  and  the  women  cutting  it 
short.  Though  the  natives  have  features  and  characteristics 
in  common,  yet  there  appears  to  be  the  union  of  two  races, 
one  akin  to  the  African  negro,  with  black  skin  and  crisp  hair; 
the  other,  the  Malayan,  skin  copper-colored,  and  hair  black 
and  glossy  and  worn  long.  Australasia  is  the  more  immediate 
home  of  the  South  sea  negro.  Tattooing  obtains  on  most  of 
the  islands,  burnt  candle-nut  mixed  with  oil  forming  the  pig- 
ment, which  is  pricked  in  with  sharpened  bird  or  "fish  bone. 

England,  France,  and  Germany  have  ere  this  taken  posses- 
sion of  and  partitioned  among  them  for  the  most  part  the 
South  sea  isles,  until  there  is  scarcely  one  left  without  annexa- 
tion or  a  protectorate  of  some  kind.  Though  geographically 
small,  many  of  them,  they  are  nevertheless  important  aside 
from  trade  considerations,  as  coaling  and  telegraph  stations. 
In  the  divisions  of  the  Solomon  and  Admiralty  groups,  and 
the  Louisiade  archipelago,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  discovery 
and  original  naming  do  not  secure  permanent  possession,  as 
England  obtains  the  islands  with  French  names,  and  the 
French  those  with  English  names.  True,  New  Ireland  and 
New  Britain,  in  the  Bismarck  archipelago,  attached  to  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  Land,  of  German  New  Guinea,  have  been  baptized 
anew  as  New  Hanover,  New  Mecklenburg,  and  New  Pomerania. 

In  Fiji  England  forbids  liquor  and  war,  and  has  brought 
immigrants  and  given  the  chiefs  a  culture  system  with  favor- 


SOUTH  SEA  ISLES  359 

able  trade  results.  In  New  Caledonia  the  French  have  given 
little  heed  to  the  rights  of  the  natives,  appropriating  to  them- 
selves their  best  lands  without  due  compensation.  In  New 
Guinea  the  rights  of  natives  to  the  soil  have  been  fully  recog- 
nized by  England. 

The  pure  Polynesian  is  of  clear  olive  complexion,  with 
black  hair  and  eyes,  a  bright  expressive  face  indicative  of  a 
happy  contented  heart;  for  he  is  indolent  and  pleasure-loving. 
The  temperature  of  this  particular  ideal  climate,  of  which 
there  are  several  millions  in  the  Pacific,  is  seldom  above  80° 
or  below  60°.  It  is  a  mistake,  the  popular  impression  that  the 
whole  south  Pacific  is  unendurably  hot  in  summer;  some  such 
idea  prevails  even  with  regard  to  southern  California,  which 
is  by  no  means  the  south  Pacific.  Take  for  example  San  Diego, 
where  I  am  now  writing,  ten  miles  back  from  the  ocean;  this 
region  is  regarded  as  specially  a  winter  climate,  and  it  is  in- 
deed superb  in  winter;  but  the  summer  climate  is  as  good,  or 
better,  and  taking  it  all  in  all,  its  equal  does  not  exist  else- 
where in  the  world.  The  absence  of  long  heavy  rains  and  of  a 
redundant  and  decaying  vegetation,  the  absence  of  wind- 
storms, of  the  typhoons  and  tornadoes  of  Asia  and  the  floods 
and  hurricanes  of  midcontinent  America,  the  absence  of  all 
those  casualties  elsewhere  existing  in  whole  or  in  part,  as  sun- 
strokes, lightning,  and  earthquakes;  the  absence  of  swamps 
breeding  malaria,  of  excessive  heat  or  cold,  with  the  air  cool 
and  fresh  from  the  ocean  in  summer  and  warm  in  winter,  the 
temperature  being  thus  remarkably  even  throughout  the  year, 
so  much  so  that  all  the  fault  grumpy  residents  can  find  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  one  word  e  monotonous ', — all  together  render 
this  spot  no  less  remarkable  than  delightful.  Let  it  be  once 
for  all  understood  that  the  climate  of  San  Diego  is  as  excep- 
tionally perfect,  the  air  as  deliciously  sweet  and  satisfying  in 
summer  as  in  winter;  and  of  the  two,  with  all  the  world  to 
choose  from,  I  prefer  the  summer. 

If  tropical  insular  air  is  found  oppressive  to  the  unac- 
climated,  it  is  because  of  its  dampness  rather  than  its  high 
temperature.  Where  altitude  can  be  attained,  with  some  short 
remove  from  the  sea,  so  that  the  winds  can  become  dried  some- 
what in  passing  over  the  land,  there  is  little  that  is  enervating 
to  Europeans  in  air  below  100°  in  temperature,  and  the  tropi- 
cal shores  of  the  Pacific  are  for  the  most  part  far  below  that 


360  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

point.  Though  the  temperature  of  the  south  Pacific  island 
is  high,  and  the  heat  in  the  lowlands  stifling,  it  is  not  so  hot 
as  in  the  same  latitude  and  at  the  same  altitude  in  South 
America.  Though  but  fifteen  or  twenty  degrees  from  the 
equator,  the  islands  are  surrounded  by  a  vast  expanse  of  water 
where  perpetual  breezes  equalize  temperature,  and  cool  and 
refresh  the  otherwise  hot  and  arid  land.  Of  course  all  these 
hot,  moist  lands  are  enervating  to  foreigners,  but  the  interior 
of  nearly  all  the  large  islands  being  hilly,  or  even  mountain- 
ous, with  sides  covered  with  verdure,  and  at  the  base  beautiful 
and  luxuriant  valleys,  delightful  climates  may  be  found  in 
many  places. 

Though  frequent  throughout  the  year,  rains  are  heavy  on 
most  of  the  islands  only  from  December  to  March,  which  is 
the  rainy  season  there.  Lightning  and  thunder  play  their 
part.  Water-spouts  present  an  unbroken  line  from  sea  to 
sky,  a  thick  mist  surrounding  the  liquid  cylinder,  while  from 
within  spiral  jets  of  steam  shoot  up, — beautiful  indeed  when 
viewed  in  safety  from  the  shore,  but  less  sublime  and  worship- 
ful when  sending  to  destruction  some  unfortunate  ship,  or 
playing  havoc  with  the  small  boats  and  huts  along  the  beach. 
The  western  monsoon  blows  in  the  sea  of  Java  in  February. 

A  wonderful  thing  happens  at  times  on  the  coast  of  China. 
At  the  mouth  of  the  river  where  the  flow  ascends  as  it  pene- 
trates the  bay  with  its  gradually  narrowing  bottom,  the  tides 
make  a  brilliant  display.  Says  a  resident  who  has  often  wit- 
nessed them,  and  is  referring  specially  to  Hongkong:  "All 
traffic  in  the  town  is  for  the  time  suspended.  The  hawkers 
cease  to  recommend  their  wares,  the  porters  to  unload  their 
ships,  which  they  abandon  in  the  middle  of  the  current.  A 
moment  suffices  to  give  the  appearance  of  solitude  to  the  most 
laborious  of  the  laborious  cities  of  Asia.  The  centre  of  the 
river  swarms  with  boats  of  every  kind.  Soon  the  flood  an- 
nounces its  approach  by  the  appearance  of  a  white  line  stretch- 
ing from  one  bank  to  the  other.  Its  roar,  which  the  Chinese 
compare  to  thunder,  deafens  the  cries  of  the  boatmen.  It  ad- 
vances with  a  prodigious  velocity,  with  the  speed  of  a  fast  rail- 
way train,  and  at  not  less  than  thirty-five  miles  an  hour.  In 
appearance  it  resembles  a  massive  wall  of  gleaming  alabaster, 
or  rather  a  foaming  cataract,  four  to  five  miles  in  length,  and 
thirty  feet  in  height,  moving  in  one  immense  mass.  Soon  it 


SOUTH  SEA   ISLES  361 

reaches  the  advanced  squadron  of  the  fleet,  which  silently 
awaits  its  coming,  with  their  bows  turned  towards  the  wave 
that  threatens  to  overwhelm  them.  Every  ship  is  carried 
safely  and  uninjured  over  the  ridge  of  the  undulating  mass. 
The  spectacle  is  full  of  strange  interest  when  the  flood  has 
swept  under  half  the  flotilla,  for  some  are  then  seen  reposing 
on  a  perfectly  tranquil  surface,  while  by  their  side,  in  the 
midst  of  a  frightful  tumult,  others  are  wildly  staggering  to 
and  fro.  The  striking  scene  lasts  but  for  a  moment.  The 
flood  flows  onward,  diminishing  in  force  and  swiftness,  and 
finally  ceases  to  be  perceptible  at  a  distance,  according  to  the 
Chinese,  of  about  eighty  miles.  The  interrupted  traffic  is 
gradually  resumed,  the  ships  are  moored  anew  to  the  shore, 
women  and  children  busy  themselves  collecting  the  objects 
lost  in  the  melee,  the  streets  are  wet  with  spray,  and  the  great 
canal  is  filled  with  ooze  and  mud." 

Missionaries  of  the  various  sects  and  nations  have  always 
played  a  prominent  part  in  the  conquest  and  occupation  of 
wild  lands  by  European  civilization.  For  next  to  conquest 
and  cupidity  as  an  agency  of  colonization  comes  proselyting, 
which  indeed  is  but  another  form  of  cupidity,  a  laying  up  of 
treasures  in  heaven  for  future  advantage  instead  of  reaping 
the  full  and  final  rewards  of  faithful  service  in  this  life.  Yet 
there  was  little  to  choose  between  the  various  kinds  of  con- 
quest, temporal  or  spiritual,  gold  glory  and  godliness  being 
one  and  inseparable  in  all  spoliations  of  heathen  lands. 

And  the  soldier  was  usually  willing  to  play  the  priest  and 
the  priest  the  soldier;  for  next  to  killing  was  converting, 
one  or  the  other  preceding,  it  did  not  much  matter  which. 
Among  the  early  conquerors  like  Cortes  and  Pizarro,  the  sol- 
dier was  no  less  ardent  in  spiritual  conquest  than  was  the 
priest  in  temporal  warfare  and  victory.  Even  Magellan,  from 
whom  we  might  look  for  better  things,  was  foolish  enough  to 
throw  away  his  life  in  a  religious  brawl  with  savages.  The 
regular  missionary  work  of  the  Spaniards  which  followed  con- 
quest, the  occupation  of  the  wilderness  and  the  erection  there- 
in of  great  agricultural  and  religious  factories,  were  along 
more  sober  and  humane  lines,  yet  reaching  the  same  end, 
death  here  and  blessedness  hereafter  to  the  proselyte. 

Modern  missionary  societies,  even,  do  not  scruple  to  set 
forth  the  secular  advantages  to  accrue  from  spiritual  efforts, 


363  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

and  though  the  present  agents  of  Christianity  and  civilization 
do  not  land  on  the  South  sea  islands  with  drawn  sword  and 
boiling  oil,  as  of  old  they  landed  on  the  islands  and  mainland 
of  America,  the  worldly  benefits  considered  are  the  same,  and 
extermination  no  less  sure. 

To  clear  at  any  time  any  new  land  of  its  native  inhabitants, 
all  that  is  necessary  is  to  introduce  European  epidemics,  which 
always  attend  in  greater  or  less  degree  European  intercourse. 

In  our  new  policy  of  expansion,  all  the  islands  of  the  Pa- 
cific assume  an  importance  to  us  not  hitherto  felt.  Samoa, 
for  example,  while  of  no  great  industrial  consequence,  having 
a  population  of  less  than  34,000  and  a  commerce  of  only  some 
$600,000  a  year,  has  now  special  value  as  a  station  on  the 
route  from  San  Francisco  to  Australia  and  New  Zealand  by 
way  of  the  Hawaiian  islands.  It  seems  a  somewhat  insignifi- 
cant affair,  after  such  a  windfall  of  islands  as  we  have  had, 
this  little  Samoan  group  in  the  south  Pacific;  yet  upon  the 
recent  death  of  King  Malietoa  the  question  came  up  of  a 
tripartite  occupation  by  Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  and 
Germany.  The  treaty  made  by  these  powers  at  Berlin  in  1889 
provided  for  the  Samoan  succession  by  election  after  the  na- 
tive method,  but  Germany  seemed  to  prefer  a  division  of  the 
islands,  which  would  give  to  the  United  States  the  smallest  of 
the  largest  three,  which  is  ours  already,  and  contains  the 
harbor  and  coaling-station  of  Pagopago.  England  would  take 
the  largest  island}  and  Germany  the  one  having  the  most  trade. 
King  Malietoa,  while  a  scion  of  the  true  branch  of  cannibals, 
was  a  gentle  savage,  and  loved  his  country,  though  fated  to 
see  it  caught  in  the  net  of  European  diplomacy  and  dismem- 
berment. 

The  Samoan  islands  belong  to  one  of  those  several  sub- 
merged mountain  ranges  that  cross  the  Pacific  in  various 
places.  Each  island  has  its  pet  volcano,  which  however  does 
not  smoke  at  present,  though  the  angry  earthquakes  frequently 
throw  up  mud  from  beneath  the  water.  Savaii,  the  largest 
island  and  the  most  difficult  of  cultivation,  being  without 
rivers  or  other  watering  facilities,  and  with  but  one  small 
harbor,  is  40  by  20  miles  in  size.  The  next,  Upola,  has  an  area 
of  550  square  miles,  a  fertile  soil  easily  cultivated,  and  sup- 
ports large  and  prosperous  plantations.  The  town  and  harbor 
of  Apia,  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  group,  is  on  the 


SOUTH  SEA  ISLES  363 

north  side  of  this  island.  Tutuila,  third  in  size,  being  seven- 
teen miles  long  by  five  miles  wide,  has  one  of  the  fine  harbors 
of  the  world,  the  island  being  almost  cut  in  twain  by  it. 
Sheltered  by  the  high  cliff,  vessels  lying  here  are  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  hurricanes  which  so  often  visit  these  waters.  Ow- 
ing to  England's  objections  to  German  proposals  to  take  for 
herself  all  the  agricultural  and  commercial  advantages,  leav- 
ing England  a  large  but  worthless  island  and  the  United  States 
a  harbor  but  with  little  land,  there  was  for  some  time  con- 
stant fear  of  international  complications.  Besides  nine  in- 
habited islands,  there  are  a  number  of  islets  and  rocks,  of 
which  birds  and  fishermen  make  some  use. 

It  is  over  the  three  largest  islands  that  the  powers  hold  their 
solemn  deliberations;  they  do  not  care  for  a  rock  or  two  more 
or  less  in  the  middle  of  the  south  Pacific.  All  these  rocks  isl- 
ands and  intervening  waters,  1,700  square  miles  will  about 
cover,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  foreigners  the  34,000  inhabi- 
tants will  in  due  time  make  away  with  themselves,  and  then 
the  powers  can  each  stock  its  own  island  with  its  own  people, 
should  they  happen  to  like  out  of  door  work  in  that  climate. 
It  is  all  very  well  to  call  such  places  a  paradise,  but  that  comes 
only  as  it  was  in  Eden,  where  clothes  are  not  required  and 
there  is  no  work  to  be  done.  A  hurricane  destroyed  seven 
large  warships,  three  American,  three  German,  and  one  Eng- 
lish, lying  at  anchor  in  the  bay  of  Apia  in  March,  1889,  which 
made  international  jealousy  in  this  quarter  rather  an  expensive 
pastime. 

The  controversy  over  the  Samoan  islands  has  been  out  of 
all  proportions  to  their  importance,  which  goes  to  show  over 
how  small  a  matter  the  powers  of  this  world  are  prepared  to 
fight.  Indeed  it  seems  necessary  to  fight  sometimes,  with  or 
without  a  cause,  if  for  nothing  more  than  to  give  practice  to 
costly  standing  armies  and  unemployed  navies.  A  score  of 
years  ago  there  were  on  the  Samoan,  or  Navigator's  islands, 
certain  English,  American,  and  German  resident  business  men. 
The  Germans,  thinking  as  usual  to  get  the  better  of  the  others, 
sought  annexation  to  their  country,  which  would  give  them 
control  of  all  the  traffic,  to  the  expulsion  of  the  others.  Hear- 
ing which  England  and  the  United  States  said,  "  Not  so  fast, 
friend,"  whereupon  Germany  dropped  her  armful  of  islands, 
and  the  three  powers  have  been  scowling  at  each  other  over 
them  ever  since. 


364  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

When  in  1880  Malietoa  had  ascended  the  throne  by  succes- 
sion, he  was  indignant  over  the  arbitrary  and  unjust  methods 
employed  by  the  Germans,  who  had  indeed  no  other  right 
than  might  on  those  islands.  Following  the  example  of  Cortes 
in  Mexico  and  Pizarro  in  Peru,  on  some  pretext  the  king  was 
seized  in  1887  by  the  German  soldiers,  and  carried  away  a 
prisoner  to  the  Cameroons.  The  country  rose  to  arms, 
Mataafa,  a  kinsman,  assuming  the  king's  duties  and  preroga- 
tives during  his  absence,  the  Germans  meanwhile  setting  up 
a  ruler  to  suit  themselves  in  the  person  of  Tamatese.  The 
British  and  American  governments  then  appearing,  in  1889 
Malietoa  was  recalled  and  reinstated,  and  the  independence  of 
the  islands  guaranteed. 

By  the  treaty  of  Berlin,  in  1889,  a  tripartite  occupation 
of  the  Samoan  islands  was  agreed  upon  by  the  United  States, 
Great  Britain,  and  Germany.  For  some  time  past  Germany 
has  seemed  dissatisfied  with  a  tripartite  government,  which  is 
cumbrous,  and  desires  a  division.  The  United  States  has  now 
a  coaling-station,  and  harbor,  Pagopago,  on  the  smallest  of 
the  three  largest  islands.  As  the  tripartite  agreement  of  1889 
did  not  seem  to  work  well,  and  as  upon  the  death  of  Malietoa 
in  1898  fresh  wranglings  arose,  threatening  as  it  would  seem 
the  peace  of  the  world,  a  great  stir  was  made  over  the  affair. 
Mataafa,  who  in  1893  had  led  a  revolt  against  Malietoa,  was 
permitted  to  return  from  exile,  to  add  if  anything  to  the  com- 
plications. By  agreement  in  1881  between  the  United  States, 
England,  and  Germany,  Malietoa  was  made  king  of  all  Samoa, 
and  Tamatese  vice-king.  When  in  1887  Germany  deported 
Malietoa  to  the  Cameroons,  and  proclaimed  Tamatese  king, 
Mataafa,  relative  of  the  exiled  king  and  representative  of  the 
royalist  party,  made  war  on  Tamatese.  Hostilities  were  active 
in  1893,  when  Mataafa  was  defeated  and  conveyed  to  one  of 
the  Union  islands.  Upon  the  death  of  Malietoa,  Mataafa  re- 
turned from  exile  and  was  elected  king,  though  opposed  by 
Tanus  and  Tamatese,  the  latter  however  withdrawing  his  op- 
position later  in  favor  of  Mataafa.  Fighting?  in  which  natives 
and  foreigners  participated,  was  frequent,  until  finally  it  was 
agreed  to  leave  the  question  of  succession  to  the  United  States 
chief  justice,  Chambers,  who  decided  in  favor  of  Tanus,  and 
this  being  unsatisfactory  to  all  but  the  adherents  of  Tanus, 
all  went  to  war  again.  Still  another  complication  arises  in  the 


SOUTH  SEA  ISLES  365 

form  of  pressure  on  the  British  government  from  the  Austral- 
asian colonists,  who  do  not  fancy  the  idea  of  armed  Teutons 
on  the  Anglo-saxon  highway  across  the  Pacific. 

East  and  west  from  Guam,  islands  extend  for  a  distance 
of  2,500  miles.  Those  toward  the  east  are  the  Marshall  isl- 
ands, 46  in  number,  comprising  150  square  miles  and  10,000 
people,  and  of  which  possession  was  taken  by  Germany  in 
1885.  Vegetation  here  is  scant,  the  natives  living  chiefly  on 
bread-fruit  and  cocoanuts,  though  bananas  taro  and  yams 
are  cultivated.  Great  Britain  annexed  the  Gilbert  group  of 
the  16  Marshall  islands,  or  rather  coral  reefs,  in  1892.  On 
them  there  is  but  little  soil,  and  scant  vegetation,  save  cocoa- 
nut  and  pandanus  trees.  There  are  here  40,000  persons  living 
on  170  square  miles  of  land.  The  ocean  furnishes  the  greater 
part  of  their  food. 

The  Caroline  and  Pelew  islands,  west  of  the  Marshall  group, 
were  discovered  by  the  Portuguese,  claimed  by  the  Spanish, 
and  seized  by  the  Germans,  who  however  were  forced  to  re- 
linquish them.  The  Carolines  extend  east  and  west  along  the 
ocean  for  2,000  miles,  a  little  off  from  the  direct  course  from 
Honolulu  to  Manila.  They  are  situated  near  the  equator,  and 
consist  of  43  low  coral  isles,  and  five  basaltic  islands,  the  latter 
from  800  to  2,800  feet  above  the  sea,  and  surrounded  by  coral 
reefs.  Nearly  all  of  them  have  good  harbors.  They  lie  out- 
side of  the  storm  and  earthquake  belt;  the  climate  is  good, 
the  air  healthful,  and  the  natives  docile. 

The  Lew-chew  islands,  that  is  to  say  the  Loo  Choo  of  early 
navigators,  between  Japan  and  Formosa,  are  a  remote  up- 
heaval of  crystalline  rocks,  gneiss  hornblende  and  granite, 
covered  with  sedimentary  strata,  and  peopled  partly  by  Jap- 
anese, though  the  real  native  is  a  type  peculiar  to  itself.  With- 
in the  full  influence  of  the  kuro-siro,  or  Japan  current,  the 
climate  is  warm  and  humid;  snow  never  rests  even  on  the 
highest  mountain  tops.  For  religion  and  philosophy  they 
have  Confucianism  and  Buddhism  mixed,  and  for  physical 
requirements  they  grow  sweet  potatoes,  sugar-cane,  the  egg- 
plant, maize,  wheat,  rice,  bananas,  and  taro;  pine  and  sago 
trees  grow  themselves. 

Though  small  in  area,  the  Lew-chews  are  great  in  history. 
The  eldest  son  of  the  first  man  and  woman  here  began  his 
reign  18,000  years  ago,  and  many  have  been  the  dynasties  since 


366  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

then.  Sometimes  independent,  sometimes  belonging  to  Ja- 
pan, or  to  China,  they  fought  every  thing  in  sight,  the  sur- 
viving remnant  multiplying  as  opportunity  offered.  If  pro- 
tection was  required  from  the  emperor  of  China,  commerce 
with  that  country  grew;  and  so  with  regard  to  Japan.  Dur- 
ing periods  of  independence,  as  in  the  reign  of  Chang-tching, 
commerce  greatly  increased;  Lew-chew  became  a  great  nation, 
the  entrepot  between  China  and  Japan,  acting  often  as  mediat- 
or between  these  nations.  Fleets  of  vessels  plied  between  these 
isles  and  Korea,  Fionga,  and  Satzuma,  and  the  ships  of  Lew- 
chew  even  entered  the  carrying  trade  of  Japan  and  China, 
and  sailed  as  far  away  as  Malacca.  These  merchant-mariners 
were  also  priests  upon  occasion,  or  they  would  fight  pirates 
whenever  their  interests  appeared  to  demand  it.  In  religion 
and  morals  they  were  equally  pliable;  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
had  no  difficulty  in  converting  them  to  Christianity,  and  hold- 
ing them  there  as  long  as  they  could  perceive  any  special 
benefit  from  it;  that  subsiding,  they  fell  back  to  the  old  staple 
article  of  their  ancestors.  Long  ago  whale  ships  touched  at 
these  isles  when  in  distress;  some  of  them  are  known  to  have 
made  good  their  escape. 

The  Sulus  are  famous  pearl  fishers,  the  occupation  now 
being  more  profitable  than  piracy.  The  pearl  fisheries  are  of 
course  held  by  the  nobles,  while  the  divers  are  slaves.  They 
have  a  rule,  sometimes  followed,  that  the  slave  who  secures  a 
large  pearl  is  entitled  to  his  liberty,  which  if  it  be  given  him 
he  is  often  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do  with  it.  Wild  hogs 
and  deer  are  common,  and  all  domestic  animals  abundant. 

Enter  a  Spice  island  store  and  one  sees  Chinese  porters 
handling  boxes  of  pimento,  bales  of  cloves,  and  sacks  of  nut- 
megs, Chinese  salesmen  smiling  in  silks,  Chinese  accountants 
with  their  mechanical  multiplication  table,  and  their  Chinese 
cashiers  handling  Mexican  silver  dollars.  If  you  wish  to 
change  your  rupees,  you  will  find  at  the  banking-house  a 
Chinese  teller  as  expert  in  handling  coin  and  detecting  short 
weight  and  counterfeits  as  any  Lombard  street  money  lender. 
The  best  hotel  is  a  bungalow,  where  poisonous  drinks  made 
from  rice  and  hemp  are  sold. 

The  harbor  of  Singapore  is  alive  with  shipping  from  every 
quarter,  European  and  American,  the  junks  from  China  also 
intermingling  with  the  old  Malay  pirate  vessels,  now  used  for 


SOUTH  SEA  ISLES  367 

better  purposes.  In  the  public  square,  which  is  the  exchange, 
the  merchants  meet  in  groups  and  pleasantly  gossip  and  dis- 
cuss business. 

The  Spice  islands  are  a  land  of  enchantment,  priests  peo- 
pling them  with  gods  and  merchants  filling  them  with  gold, 
or  things  more  precious  than  gold,  as  frankincense  and  myrrh, 
pearls  and  precious  stones,  fine  spices  and  death  destroying 
drugs.  From  hills  of  richest  verdure  one  may  gaze  on  cloud- 
encircling  peak  and  coral  sea.  The  air  is  perfumed  with  flow- 
ers, and  scented  with  cinnamon,  pimento,  nutmegs,  and  cloves. 
But  there  is  less  of  enchantment  in  a  steamy,  sticky  atmosphere 
at  a  temperature  of  95°;  in  living  with  lizards,  cockroaches, 
flies,  fleas,  bugs,  spiders,  scorpions,  centipedes,  wood-leaches, 
ants,  snakes,  cobras,  and  the  rest.  The  scenery  is  better  than 
the  vermin  for  purposes  of  enchantment, — shades  of  green, 
light  upon  the  mountain  sides,  dark  in  the  ravines,  while 
embowering  the  Malay  huts  that  line  the  shore  are  groves  of 
palms  and  betel,  and  back  among  the  hills  dorian  and  man- 
gosteen.  The  East  India  company  took  possession  of  the  isl- 
and of  Penang,  opposite  Sumatra  and  near  Malacca,  and  held 
it  until  1857,  when  the  British  government  assumed  control. 

Batavia,  the  capital  of  Java,  where  the  Dutch  are  still  in 
evidence,  was  called  the  queen  of  the  east  under  the  Dutch 
East  India  company  regime,  and  it  still  fraternizes  commer- 
cially with  Ceylon  and  the  Moluccas.  Coffee  and  rice  come 
first  among  the  valued  products  of  Java,  where  are  made  many 
mats  from  the  cane  which  comes  from  Sumatra.  Sandalwood 
of  a  delicate  yellow  color  and  fine  fragrance  grows  in  the 
mountains  of  Timor,  and  is  exported  largely  to  China  for 
burning  in  the  dwellings  of  the  wealthy,  and  in  temples. 
Here,  also,  an  important  article  of  commerce  is  the  wax  of 
the  wild  bees,  which  hangs  from  the  trees  in  huge  honey- 
combs. 


CHAPTER   XV 

HAWAII,    THE    PEABL    OF    THE    PACIFIC 

SAYS  the  author  of  Anson's  Voyage,  writing  in  1746,  "  It 
is  indeed  most  remarkable,  that  by  the  concurrent  testimony 
of  all  the  Spanish  navigators,  there  is  not  one  port,  nor,  even 
a  tolerable  road  as  yet  found  out,  betwixt  the  Philippine  isl- 
ands and  the  coast  of  California;  so  that  from  the  time  the 
Manila  ship  first  loses  sight  of  land,  she  never  lets  go  her 
anchor  till  she  arrives  on  the  coast  of  California,  and  very 
often  not  till  she  gets  to  its  southernmost  extremity."  Thus 
it  would  seem  that  when  Cook  came,  a  quarter  of  a  century 
later,  the  existence  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  was  not  known. 

Although  one  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  was  discovered  by 
Gaetano  in  1542,  the  fact  seems  to  have  been  forgotten,  by 
the  commanders  of  the  Spanish  galleons,  as  well  as  by  the 
pirates  and  circumnavigators,  if  indeed  the  discovery  had  ever 
been  known  by  them.  Whatever  the  secret  archives  of  Spain 
may  have  contained,  it  is  very  certain  that  Spanish  navigators 
did  not  know  of  the  islands  for  over  two  centuries.  Evidently 
Captain  Cook  knew  nothing  of  them,  nor  any  of  the  geog- 
raphers, chart-makers,  or  navigators  of  his  day.  The  memory 
of  Columbus  is  honored  as  fully  as  if  he  had  been  the  first  to 
find  America,  as  if  he  had  been  the  first  to  deem  it  possible, 
or  probable,  that  by  sailing  west,  the  other  side  of  east  might 
be  found.  So  with  regard  to  Captain  Cook,  who  was  a  hired 
sailing-master  ploughing  in  the  Pacific  a  straight  furrow  from 
south  to  north,  from  the  previously  discovered  South  sea  isles 
to  the  fur-seal  lands  of  Vitus  Bering,  when  he  accidentally 
ran  against  this  land. 

In  the  Hawaiian  group  are  eight  large  and  seven  small  isl- 
ands, the  former  mountainous,  and  some  of  them  volcanic; 
the  latter,  little  more  than  islets  or  rocks.  The  islands  lie  in 
midocean,  just  within  the  tropics,  in  latitude  20°  more  or  less, 

368 


HAWAII,    THE    PEARL    OF    THE    PACIFIC    369 

on  nearly  a  straight  line  from  Cuba  to  the  Philippines.  The 
eight  large  islands,  with  their  total  area  of  6,740  square  miles, 
are  Hawaii,  4,210  square  miles;  Kahoolaui,  63  square  miles; 
Lauai,  150  square  miles;  Maui,  760  square  miles;  Molokai,  270 
square  miles;  Oahu,  600  square  miles;  Kaui,  590  square  miles; 
and  Niihau,  97  square  miles.  Kaui  is  called  the  garden  island 
from  its  well-watered  and  luxuriant  vegetation.  It  is  devoted 
largely  to  sugar  and  rice,  with  coffee  possibilities.  Maui  has 
sugar  plantations  and  coffee  lands;  Haleakala,  the  principal 
mountain  of  Maui,  is  covered  with  small  farms  growing  po- 
tatoes, corn,  beans,  and  pigs.  Oahu,  besides  containing  the 
capital,  Honolulu,  with  30,000  inhabitants,  and  extensive 
sugar  lands,  has  in  course  of  construction  a  railway  to  make 
the  circuit  of  the  island.  The  peaks  of  Mauna  Kea  and  Mauna 
Loa,  Hawaii,  each  some  14,000  feet  high,  are  on  the  largest 
and  most  important  island  agriculturally,  and  which  gives  its 
name  to  the  group.  Oahu  holds  the  commercial  and  political 
supremacy  in  Honolulu,  the  capital  and  chief  city,  which  is 
American,  so  far  as  occupied  by  Americans,  and  native  where 
the  natives  dwell.  Kilauea,  on  the  Mauna.  Loa  mountain, 
whose  active  crater  is  three  miles  wide,  erupts  25  times  as 
much  as  Vesuvius.  It  is  always  in  action,  but  the  great  erup- 
tions come  periodically;  one  occurred  in  1840,  one  in  1843, 
and  another  in  1852.  An  eruption  in  1855-6  continued  for 
fifteen  months.  Mauna  Kea,  13,805  feet  high,  always  wears  a 
cap  of  snow,  even  in  the  hottest  season.  Weaimea  rejoices  in 
a  broad  breezy  plain,  a  grand  sweep  of  mountain  curves,  all 
intermingled  with  the  variegations  of  mountains  and  sea,  from 
the  white  snow  on  the  ragged  volcanic  dome  to  the  innumera- 
ble hues  of  green  and  blue  and  red  and  gold  overspreading 
the  foliage  below.. 

Nature  is  still  at  work  enlarging  the  borders  of  these  isl- 
ands by  means  of  volcanic  masonry,  and  there  may  be  here 
another  Australia  in  time.  The  flora  too  will  increase  and 
improve;  there  are  no  hurricanes,  and  thunderstorms  are  rare. 
The  soil  is  prolific;  a  man  can  live  on  the  products  from  40 
square  feet  of  it,  that  is  so  far  as  food  is  concerned.  An  acre 
will  grow  500  banana  trees,  yielding  ten  tons  of  fruit;  there 
are  two  and  a  half  tons  of  sugar  to  the  acre.  There  is  nothing 
like  American  farming  on  the  islands;  it  is  not  necessary. 
Insectivorous  birds  should  be  propagated  here  for  the  benefit 
of  horticulture. 


370  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

Honolulu,  the  capital  city  of  the  Hawaiian  islands,  is  con- 
structed largely  of  one-story  wooden  houses,  with  government 
buildings,  water-works,  museum,  and  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments, electric  lights  and  tramways.  The  harbor  is  ample, 
with  good  wharves,  and  has  direct  communication  with  most 
of  the  ports  of  the  Pacific.  Among  the  prominent  edifices 
are  the  Executive  building,  the  Oahu  college,  and  the  Kame- 
hameha  school.  Many  of  the  present  native  Hawaiians  read 
and  write  English  in  addition  to  their  own  language.  Be- 
sides schools  there  are  libraries  and  churches;  some  of  the 
stores  are  quite  elegant,  corresponding  with  those  of  the  civil- 
ized world  elsewhere,  and  all  for  the  proper  accommodation 
of  the  American  English  and  native  population.  At  the  time 
of  annexation  there  were  a  normal  and  training  school,  a  min- 
ister of  public  instruction,  reading  circles,  and  several  schools 
with  foreign  teachers.  Modern  industrialism  has  long  held 
the  attention  of  the  islanders.  The  Kamehameha  schools  of 
manual  training  were  established  by  the  Princess  Pauahi,  the 
last  of  the  Kamehamehas.  The  well-endowed  Polynesian  mu- 
seum is  housed  in  a  massive  stone  building. 

The  first  printing  at  the  island  was  a  school  book  in  1822, 
and  two  years  later  2,000  natives,  including  the  king  and  his 
chiefs,  were  able  to  read.  Schools  were  established;  and  the 
days  of  Hawaiian  feudalism  were  but  just  passed,  when  from 
the  California  coast  came  the  children  of  Mexican  rancheros 
for  a  better  education  than  they  could  obtain  at  home.  Laws 
and  a  written  constitution  were  promulgated  in  1840. 

At  the  mission  one  sees  here  and  there  an  old  adobe  with 
thick  grass  roof  projecting  six  feet  to  shade  the  windows,  the 
house  itself  embowered  in  palms  and  algarobas,  while  the 
night  air  is  filled  with  the  fragrance  of  hibiscus  and  oleanders. 

An  Hawaiian  forest  is  a  tangled  mass  of  broad-leaved  vege- 
tation, like  that  of  the  banana  tree,  intermixed  with  the  koa, 
or  mahogany,  and  the  green  and  silver  leaved  candle-nut,  and 
a  score  of  other  forest  trees  and  plants,  with  an  undergrowth  of 
grass  ferns  and  flowers.  But  for  the  open  ways  cut  by  the 
wood-haulers  these  vast  hot-beds  of  redundant  nature  would 
be  impenetrable.  Lining  and  over-arching  the  roads  are 
mango  caoutchouc  and  umbrella  trees,  bread-fruit  orange  and 
bamboo,  monkey-pod,  date  and  cocoa  palms,  and  alligator 
pears,  while  at  the  houses  and  hamlets  the  moist  air  is  heavy 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF   THE    PACIFIC    371 

with  the  odor  of  flowers.  Paradise  in  the  Pacific,  the  Hawaiian 
islands  have  been  called,  by  those  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
other  paradise  long  ago  established  in  these  waters  by  one 
who  knew  little  of  either  the  Pacific  ocean  or  of  any  paradise. 

The  capital  and  metropolitan  city  of  the  Pacific  may  yet 
be  planted  upon  this  pearl;  the  great  ocean  could  find  no 
more  fitting  place  for  a  capital  than  these  charming  central 
isles.  The  war  made  plain  to  all  what  long  had  been  plain  to 
some  that  as  a  strategic  outpost  of  the  Pacific  coast  the  islands 
were  necessary  to  the  United  States,  and  must  be  held  by  no 
other  power.  With  the  conquest  of  Manila,  and  the  unfold- 
ing of  large  American  interests  on  the  Asiatic  shores,  the 
question  of  Hawaiian  annexation  assumed  a  different  shape. 
The  islands  then  obviously  became  a  necessity.  A  German 
or  a  Japanese  flag  floating  over  Honolulu  might  not  imply 
hostile  designs  on  our  coast,  but  it  would  be  a  serious  incon- 
venience to  our  oriental  commerce.  Americans  who  opposed 
the  annexation  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  need  only  to  shut  their 
eyes,  and  imagine  how  it  would  be  with  this  outpost  of  the 
American  coast,  and  point  d'appui  in  the  centre  of  the  Pa- 
cific, in  the  hands  of  a  hostile  power. 

Cattle-raising  is  the  chief  industry  of  Waimea,  whose  table- 
land, 2,500  feet  in  height,  has  an  average  temperature  of  64°, 
with  clear  cool  evenings,  but  moistened  by  rain  or  mist  nearly 
every  day  in  the  year.  Over  this  high  level  Mauna  Loa  some- 
times throws  a  light  such  as  enables  one  to  read  a  newspaper 
at  midnight  forty  miles  away.  But  all  the  fierce  eruptions  to 
which  these  fiery  hills  are  subject  trouble  not  the  gentle  sheep 
that  pasture  on  their  slopes,  nor  yet  the  gentle  shepherd,  for 
that  matter,  particularly  if  he  happens  to  be  a  mounted  China- 
man or  sleepy  Kanaka.  Coffee,  fruit,  and  grazing  lands  are 
now  offered  at  from  $10  to  $40  an  acre.  For  the  past  half 
century  the  policy  has  been  pursued  by  the  government  of 
selling  lands  at  low  prices  for  cash,  and  also  of  making  long 
leases  of  large  tracts.  The  terms  have  been  so  easy  that  the 
best  lands  are  now  practically  monopolized  by  wealthy  holders, 
who  will  sell  only  at  a  large  price. 

Coffee,  sugar,  rice,  peanuts,  hides,  paddy,  goat-skins,  tallow, 
horns,  fungus,  sperm  oil,  cocoanut  oil,  whale  oil,  whalebones, 
paiai,  shark's  fins,  betel  leaves,  tamarinds,  sweet  potatoes,  ba- 
nanas, pineapples,  pulu  cocoanuts,  oranges,  limes,  and  sandal- 


372  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

wood  are  exported  to  the  value  of  some  $2,000,000  annually. 
Coffee  grows  wild  in  almost  all  the  valleys  of  the  group,  but 
some  localities  are  better  adapted  to  its  culture  than  others. 
One  of  these  is  the  Puna  district,  where  its  cultivation  at  Oloa 
has  transformed  a  tropical  forest  into  broad  plantations,  from 
600  to  2,300  feet  above  the  sea.  Hilo,  not  far  distant  has 
rich  soil,  an  ample  rainfall,  and  good  protection  from  the 
wind.  Figs  melons  and  potatoes,  sugar-cane  bananas  and 
taro,  bread-fruit  and  the  vine,  are  all  of  prolific  growth.  These 
and  other  products  are  sent  forth,  and  lumber  from  Puget 
sound  brought  in,  with  all  the  requirements  of  civilization 
from  California.  The  pineapple  though  prolific  is  not  indig- 
enous to  these  isles,  being  brought  hither  by  early  navigators. 
Wilkes  saw  pineapples  under  cultivation  near  Kealakekua  bay, 
on  Hawaii,  in  1840.  Maui  shipped  abroad  12,000  in  1850, 
and  the  export  from  all  the  islands  in  1851  was  21,000.  After 
this  the  industry  languished  for  want  of  a  market,  but  re- 
vived and  was  rapidly  developed  since  1883,  when  new  varie- 
ties were  introduced,  and  canneries  later  established. 

Sugar-raising  as  an  industry  has  been  carried  on  in  the  isl- 
ands for  about  sixty  years.  The  beginning  was  small  and  the 
methods  crude,  but  advance  was  rapid,  so  that  for  the  last  three 
decades  sugar  has  been  the  mainstay  of  the  islands.  The 
product  of  1897  is  estimated  at  250,000  tons.  The  increase 
of  production  is  not  due  altogether  to  larger  acreage,  but  to 
some  extent  to  improved  methods  in  both  growing  and  manu- 
facture. More  sugar  is  obtained  from  an  acre  of  ground  now 
than  formerly.  And  as  the  land  on  the  islands  adapted  to 
sugar-raising  is  limited,  and  the  most  of  it  appropriated,  the 
increase  of  production  hereafter  will  not  be  great.  Most 
of  the  cane-cultivation  is  on  the  lower  levels  of  the  four  larger 
islands,  Hawaii,  Maui,  Oahu,  and  Kauai.  The  sugar  industry 
has  grown  of  late  years,  the  plantations  of  Oahu,  Hawaii,  and 
Kauai  producing  largely.  Good  coffee  is  grown  on  the  slopes  of 
the  Koua  and  Olea  districts.  Of  bananas  and  pineapples,  the 
production  can  be  made  to  supply  almost  any  demand.  Cotton 
is  grown  to  some  extent,  and  it  is  thought  the  production  can 
be  increased  and  made  profitable.  By  turning  the  mountain 
streams  into  flumes,  on  the  Hilo  plantations,  cane  and  wood 
may  be  floated  down  to  the  mills  with  comparatively  little  ex- 
pense. From  25  to  300  mules  are  here  employed  in  plough- 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF   THE   PACIFIC    373 

ing  and  other  farm  work,  and  hauling  the  sugar  to  the  ship- 
ping station.  A  plantation  making  750  tons  of  sugar  a  year 
employs  200  Chinamen  and  Kanakas,  and  150  work  animals. 
The  Mexican  system  of  peonage  obtains  to  some  extent,  the 
wages,  $8  a  month,  being  often  advanced,  and  the  laborer  held 
for  the  debt,  which  is  never  paid. 

We  have  now  of  banana  lands  all  we  shall  ever  require,  in 
the  West  Indies  and  in  the  isles  of  the  Pacific.  Trees  attain  a 
height  of  35  feet  in  places,  and  they  love  best  the  lowlands 
near  the  sea.  The  best  banana  farms  are  held  and  worked  by 
Americans  and  Germans.  The  ground  may  be  ploughed  or 
not  as  the  planter  pleases,  but  in  any  event  the  undergrowth 
must  be  kept  cut  out.  The  grower  receives  from  fifteen  to 
thirty  cents  a  bunch,  at  which  price  the  industry  is  profitable. 
Yet  the  northern  consumer  will  pay  fifteen  to  thirty  cents  a 
dozen  for  what  the  planter  gets  one  or  two  cents  a  dozen; 
indeed,  a  thirty  cent  bunch  in  San  Francisco  has  often  been 
retailed  for  ten  dollars.  With  the  various  new  industries  and 
methods  which  will  be  introduced,  the  islands  will  increase 
in  productiveness,  their  demand  meanwhile  increasing  for 
products  of  the  United  States.  American  capital  is  there 
largely  employed  in  the  production  of  sugar,  of  which  estates 
there  are  over  sixty.  Grain  is  also  cultivated  to  some  extent, 
and  wool-growing  is  quite  an  industry. 

A  limited  cooperation  experiment  is  being  tried  in  sugar- 
raising  at  the  islands.  Twenty-one  white  families  cultivate 
140  acres  each,  the  men  receiving  $18  a  month  wages  and  one- 
sixth  of  the  profits  on  what  they  raise.  This  will  help  to 
prove  whether  or  not  white  labor  can  be  made  profitable  in 
this  latitude.  If  in  the  mean  time  statistics  are  accurately 
kept,  the  results  will  be  ready  to  be  given  to  the  scientific 
world  in  one  or  two  hundred  years.  One  firm  has  at  its  com- 
mand $25,000,000  of  capital  for  the  promotion  of  the  sugar 
and  coffee  industries.  This  firm  not  only  owns  and  operates 
large  plantations  on  its  own  account,  but  loans  money  to 
smaller  growers  whose  pledged  product  the  capitalist  secures 
at  his  own  price.  The  erection  of  a  central  sugar  factory  in 
Antigua  under  government  guarantee,  for  the  relief  of  the 
West  Indian  sugar  industry,  is  an  indication  on  the  part  of 
England  that  serious  disturbance  of  the  market  is  expected 
by  reason  of  important  changes  in  the  ownership  of  sugar 


374  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

lands.  Increase  of  Hawaiian  products  annually  exported  from 
1887  to  1897:  sugar,  from  212,763,647  to  520,158,232  pounds; 
wool,  from  75,911  to  249,200  pounds;  coffee,  from  5,300  to 
337,158  pounds;  rice,  decrease,  from  13,684,200  to  5,499,499 
pounds.  Wages  of  experienced  hands  and  skilled  laborers, 
$15  to  $20  a  month;  plantation  labor  $8  to  $12;  domestic 
servants,  $16  to  $25;  mechanics  $2.50  to  $4  a  day.  . 

Scattered  over  the  eight  islands  comprising  the  former 
Hawaiian  republic  were  in  1896,  when  the  census  was  taken, 
108,366  people;  of  whom  31,000  were  natives;  8,500  half 
breeds;  24,000  Japanese,  whose  numbers  since  then  have  in- 
creased; 15,000  Portuguese;  21,600  Chinese;  2,250  English; 
1,430  Germans;  3,086  Americans;  and  of  other  nations  1,500. 
The  Asiatics  work  in  the  sugar-cane;  the  Portuguese  have 
little  farms  of  no  great  value  in  the  high  lands,  and  supply 
Honolulu  with  flowers  and  vegetables.  Among  all  these  strata 
of  Hawaiian  humanity  there  are  not  more  than  7,000  or  8,000 
possible  voters,  and  not  more  than  half  of  those  who  can  vote 
care  to  vote,  and  but  a  small  proportion  of  those  who  would 
care  to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage  can  only  vote  for  one 
branch  of  the  legislature,  a  property  qualification  being  re- 
quired of  voters  for  members  of  the  senate.  By  annexation, 
31,000  native  Hawaiians  became  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
The  constitution  provides  that  white  persons  and  those  of 
African  descent  may  become  citizens,  and  no  others,  and  two 
courts  in  the  United  States  have  decided  that  an  Hawaiian 
islander  is  neither  white  nor  black,  and  therefore  cannot  be- 
come a  citizen  of  the  American  republic.  White  people  re- 
siding in  the  islands  did  not  renounce  their  original  national- 
ity and  become  Hawaiian  citizens,  but  lived  there  under  a 
system  of  denizenship,  said  denizens  having  a  right  to  vote  and 
take  part  in  the  government. 

Whatever  the  cause,  the  native  race  is  disappearing,  nor 
can  its  decadence  be  arrested.  When  under  the  reciprocity 
treaty  industrial  development  increased,  it  was  evident  that 
population  must  be  increased,  particularly  in  the  direction  of 
plantation  laborers.  The  matter  was  taken  up  by  the  govern- 
ment, and  11,000  Portuguese  from  the  Azores  were  imported. 
Industrious  and  thrifty,  they  rose  in  time  to  be  teamsters, 
mechanics,  traders,  and  fruit-growers.  In  1896  they  numbered 
15,191.  The  Chinese  who  have  come  to  the  islands  are  of 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF   THE   PACIFIC    375 

a  better  class  than  the  Japanese,  who  still  swarm  into  the 
country  in  great  numbers.  Of  the  7,000  Americans,  English, 
Germans,  and  Norwegians,  2,200  were  born  at  the  islands. 

Cook  estimated  the  population  at  300,000,  and  though 
guesswork  he  was  not  far  from  right.  Both  men  and  women 
are  strong  and  well  built,  with  features  coarse  yet  pleasing. 
The  Chinese  came  since  then;  they  now  cultivate  rice,  the 
grain  here  being  larger  and  more  translucent  than  in  their 
own  country.  The  natives  wear  but  little,  and  sometimes  no 
clothing,  and  the  taro  root  is  their  staple  food.  A  little  grass 
hut  with  one  room  is  the  typical  native  home,  with  dogs,  pigs, 
and  lizards  scattered  about.  The  family  feed  with  their  fingers 
from  a  calabash  of  poi  placed  on  a  mat  in  the  middle  of  the 
floor.  The  taboo  system  was  equivalent  to  a  safe-deposit  com- 
pany with  two  sets  of  officers,  one  to  watch  the  other.  For  it 
was  death  to  break  the  taboo  of  whatever  kind, — to  enter  the 
house  or  grounds  tabooed,  to  eat  tabooed  food  or  wear  tabooed 
clothes,  or  steal  tabooed  property. 

The  story  of  Hawaii,  like  any  tale  of  barbaric  decadence, 
is  soon  told.  The  Hawaiian  islanders  are  of  the  Malayo-Poly- 
nesian  race,  reddish  brown  skin,  raven  black  hair,  broad  face, 
lustrous  brown  eyes,  thin  beard,  flat  nose,  and  thick  lips,  the 
chiefs  alone,  and  their  families  being  tall.  When  discovered 
by  Captain  Cook  in  1778  each  island  had  its  separate  chief. 
He  who  ruled  Hawaii  at  that  time  was  succeeded  at  his  death 
by  Kamehameha,  who  induced  Vancouver  in  1792  to  instruct 
him  in  the  art  of  building  ships,  with  which  he  increased  his 
commerce,  and  went  to  war  with  the  chiefs  of  the  other  isl- 
ands, finally  conquering  them  all. 

The  Kamehamehan  dynasty,  begun  by  the  first  of  that 
name,  the  Casar  of  Hawaii,  the  lion-hearted  warrior  and  wise 
lawgiver,  and  ended  in  the  degeneration  of  the  race  and  final 
union  with  the  United  States  of  America.  It  was  Kamehame- 
ha II  who  fought  and  conquered  the  other  chiefs,  and  brought 
the  petty  principalities  of  all  the  islands  under  his  sway.  Little 
is  known  of  this  able  and  arbitrary  ruler,  who  died  while  on  a 
visit  to  England  in  1819;  the  remains  were  brought  home  in 
the  ship  Blonde,  Lord  Byron,  cousin  of  the  poet,  commander. 
Kamehameha  III,  was  a  mild  and  lovable  prince,  from  a  Poly- 
nesian point  of  view,  though  somewhat  addicted  to  rum  and 
religion.  This  good  man,  as  the  missionaries  called  him,  died 
13 


376  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

in  1854,  and  was  succeeded  by  an  adopted  son,  Prince  Alex- 
ander Liholiho,  as  Kamehameha  IV.  He  also  was  renowned 
for  piety  and  love  of  rapid  living;  he  was  pronounced  by  the 
missionaries  the  prince  of  good  fellows,  a  nobleman  of  nature 
and  elect  of  heaven;  he  did  not  live  long.  This  fourth  Kam- 
ehameha was  a  son  of  Kekuanoa  and  the  high  priestess  of  the 
Kamehamehas,  and  by  reason  of  his  superb  physique  and 
kingly  bearing  he  was  chosen  by  Kinau,  daughter  of  the  first 
sister  of  the  third  Kamehameha,  for  her  husband. 

And  now  came  a  king  who  knew  not  the  missionaries,  and 
his  name  was  Lot,  that  is  to  say  Kamehameha  V.  He  was  the 
elder  and  only  surviving  brother  of  his  predecessor,  and  being 
a  stern  man  with  an  iron  will,  on  whom  the  mantle  of  the  first 
Kamehameha  had  fallen,  he  determined  to  rule  for  himself, 
without  the  aid  of  the  white  man,  be  he  missionary  or  Lawyer 
Lee,  who  had  framed  the  liberal  constitution  of  1852.  The 
new  Kamehameha  said  he  would  make  a  constitution  for  him- 
self. So  he  called  a  convention  for  that  purpose;  and  when 
the  convention  declared  that  only  a  legislature  could  change 
the  constitution,  he  swore  he  would  be  both  convention  and 
constitution,  and  went  to  ruling  accordingly.  This  man 
also  died  and  was  buried;  and  here  endeth  the  legitimate  line 
of  the  Kamehamehas. 

The  next  king,  the  sixth  in  order  of  succession,  was  Lunalilo, 
son  of  a  high  priestess.  He  made  his  way  by  the  force  of  in- 
difference and  love  of  liquor,  had  himself  promptly  proclaimed 
and  his  election  consummated  and  confirmed  by  the  legislature 
then  in  session,  all  within  the  period  of  ten  days.  This  was  in 
1873;  and  it  was  a  work  well  and  quickly  done  when  we  con- 
sider the  country  and  the  climate.  In  or  out  of  his  cups,  he 
was  a  man  of  wit  and  probity;  he  was  a  bright  and  shining 
meteor,  going  out  in  darkness  and  death  after  a  reign  of 
thirteen  months. 

David  Kalakaua,  as  seventh  king  of  all  the  Hawaiians, 
comes  next;  in  1874  he  made  a  tour  round  the  world,  reaping 
a  harvest  of  information  and  ideas.  Meanwhile,  during 
David's  reign  the  foreigners,  mostly  Americans,  already  con- 
trolled the  commercial  interests  of  the  country,  and  believing 
that  something  better  might  be  had  for  the  government  than 
a  native  figure-head,  they  quietly  deposed  the  queen  and  set 
up  a  republic  with  Sanford  B.  Doje  as  president,  who  applied 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF    THE    PACIFIC    377 

for  the  annexation  of  the  islands  to  the  United  States,  which 
was  consummated  in  the  early  part  of  1898. 

Under  the  native  regime  the  government  was  an  hereditary 
and  constitutional  monarchy.  A  house  of  nobles,  twenty  in 
number,  was  appointed  by  the  crown,  and  a  house  of  repre- 
sentatives, of  from  24  to  40  members,  was  elected  biennially. 
Then  came  the  usual  ministers,  justices,  and  petty  officials, 
and  a  standing  army  of  60  men. 

Mixed  up  between  the  missionaries  and  sailors,  English, 
Yankees  and  the  rest,  the  depopulation  of  the  islands  set  in 
and  went  with  a  rush.  This  began  about  1820,  the  English 
giving  their  isles  of  Sandwich  a  rest  of  half  a  century  after 
their  loss  of  Captain  Cook.  It  was  about  this  time  that  dis- 
sensions among  the  natives  themselves  arose,  and  in  1826 
came  the  American  Captain  Jones,  who  negotiated  the  first 
commercial  treaty  with  the  Hawaiian  king,  which  though  in 
the  main  observed  was  never  ratified  by  the  United  States. 
French  priests  made  some  trouble  there  in  1827,  as  they  are 
doing  now  in  China,  but  the  captain  of  the  United  States  ship 
Potomac,  who  was  there  in  1827,  put  things  to  rights.  Under 
the  guns  of  his  ship,  the  Acteon,  Lord  Russell  negotiated  a  so- 
called  treaty  in  1836.  Other  visitors  were  Laplace,  in  the 
French  ship  L'Artimise,  in  1839,  who  forced  a  treaty  of  com- 
merce and  religion  on  the  natives,  threatening  to  fire  on  them 
in  case  of  refusal;  and  Lord  George  Paulet,  in  the  British 
ship  Carysfort,  in  1843,  who  took  possession  of  the  islands  for 
his  queen,  and  forced  a  deed  of  cession  from  Kamehameha  III. 
But  the  matter  was  not  allowed  to  rest  there.  The  island  king 
appealed  to  the  United  States;  but  long  "before  the  message 
could  reach  President  Tyler,  to  whom  it  was  addressed  at 
Washington,  Commodore  Kearney  was  there  in  the  United 
States  ship  Constellation,  protesting  against  the  cession  to 
England,  Admiral  Thomas,  who  arrived  shortly  after  in  the 
British  ship  Dublin,  sustaining  him;  so  that  the  act  of  Paulet 
was  annulled,  and  under  a  signed  agreement  the  Hawaiian  flag 
was  restored  to  its  former  place.  By  Webster  in  1842,  and 
by  Calhoun  in  1844,  the  independence  of  the  islands  was 
recognized,  England  and  France  in  1843  agreeing  reciprocally 
"to  consider  the  Sandwich  islands  as  an  independent  state 
and  never  to  take  possession,  either  directly  or  under  title  of 
protectorate,  or  under  any  form  of  any  part  of  the  territory 


378  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

of  which  they  are  composed."  Notwithstanding  which,  after 
certain  unreasonable  and  extortionate  demands,  the  French  in 
1849  seized  the  islands;  and  again  in  1851  threatened  bom- 
bardment, but  were  finally  driven  away  by  England  and  the 
United  States. 

When  King  Lunalilo,  the  last  of  his  race,  died  in  1874  with- 
out issue  or  successor,  the  legislative  assembly,  of  which  ere 
this  the  natives  had  been  taught  the  use,  proceeded  to  elect  a 
sovereign.  Two  factions,  the  one  of  Queen  Emma  and  the 
other  of  Kalakaua,  appeared  as  claimants,  with  threats  of  vio- 
lence. Appeal  was  made  to  the  American  minister,  who  called 
on  two  United  States  warships  then  in  port  to  preserve  order. 
Marines  were  also  landed  from  British  ships,  and  peace  was 
preserved. 

Says  Minister  Comly:  "  In  the  legislative  assembly  of  1878 
a  large  party  of  British  sympathizers  attacked  the  government 
severely,  and  threatened  the  reciprocity  treaty  so  seriously 
that  I  wrote  another  note  of  warning  and  protest  to  the  min- 
ister of  foreign  affairs."  Secretary  Evarts,  in  August,  1878, 
writes  to  Mr  Comly:  "  You  will  endeavor  to  disabuse  the 
minds  of  those  who  impute  to  the  United  States  any  idea  of 
further  projects  beyond  the  present  treaty." 

An  insurrection  which  broke  out  in  July,  1889,  by  100  Ha- 
waiians  under  two  half  breeds,  Wilcox  and  Boyd,  was  sup- 
pressed by  marines  from  the  United  States  ship  Adams.  King 
Kalakaua  died  in  January  1890,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  sister 
Lilio  Liliuokalani,  who,  owing  to  her  reactionary  policy,  was 
deposed  in  January  1893,  and  five  commissioners  were  sent  to 
the  United  States  asking  annexation.  The  Washington  gov- 
ernment rejected  the  proposal,  Secretary  Blaine  writing  in 
December,  1881,  "  This  government  firmly  believes  that  the 
position  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  as  the  key  to  the  dominion 
of  the  American  Pacific  demands  their  benevolent  neutrality, 
to  which  end  it  will  earnestly  cooperate  with  the  native  gov- 
ernment." In  December  1887,  the  British  minister  at  Wash- 
ington handed  the  following  to  the  United  States  secretary  of 
state:  "  England  and  France,  by  the  convention  of  November 
28,  1843,  are  bound  to  consider  the  Sandwich  islands  as  an 
independent  state,  <>nd  never  take  possession,  either  directly, 
or  under  the  title  of  a  protectorate,  or  any  other  form,  of  any 
part  of  the  territory  of  which  they  are  composed.  The  best 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF   THE    PACIFIC    379 

way  to  secure  this  object  would,  in  the  opinion  of  her  majesty's 
government,  be  that  the  powers  chiefly  interested  in  the  trade 
of  the  Pacific  should  join  in  making  a  formal  declaration  simi- 
lar to  that  of  1843,  above  alluded  to,  and  that  the  United 
States  government  should,  with  England  and  Germany,  guar- 
antee the  neutrality  and  equal  accessibility  of  the  islands,  and 
their  harbors  to  the  ships  of  all  nations  without  preference." 

Thus  the  acquisition  of  Hawaii  had  been  discussed  by  Ameri- 
can statesmen  for  half  a  century,  and  the  desirability  of  the 
measure  practically  determined.  It  was  understood  for  the 
most  part  in  Europe,  no  less  than  in  Hawaii,  that  annexation 
to  the  United  States  would  be  a  fate  most  fortunate  for  the 
islands,  and  certainly  of  no  disadvantage  to  the  American  re- 
public. The  United  States  had  no  apology  to  offer  the  world 
for  the  act  of  annexation.  It  was  a  connection  unsought  for, 
and  not  wholly  to  be  desired.  Many  good  men  in  the  United 
States  were  opposed  to  stepping  out  into  the  ocean  for  island 
domain.  On  the  other  hand,  as  at  Cuba,  we  could  not  stand 
by  and  see  a  foreign  power  take  possession  of  the  islands. 
They  belong  naturally  to  us,  as  a  strategic  outpost  if  for  noth- 
ing else.  They  came  of  their  own  accord  and  begged  us  to 
take  them,  and  it  was  not  until  after  due  deliberation  that  we 
accepted  the  gift. 

After  the  death  of  Lunalilo,  the  cry  was  raised,  "  Hawaii 
for  the  Hawaiians,"  but  there  were  not  enough  Hawaiians  of 
the  right  kind  to  hold  Hawaii.  Two  candidates  appeared  at 
an  election  called  to  choose  a  sovereign,  at  which  Kalakaua 
received  thirty-nine  votes  and  Emma  six  votes.  Emma's  re- 
tainers did  not  like  this,  and  a  riot  ensued  in  which  Emma 
had  the  worst  of  it,  leaving  King  Kalakaua  to  reign  in  peace, 
but  without  much  money.  One  of  the  arguments  used  for 
annexation  was  that  if  it  was  not  done  there  would  be  a  re- 
volt against  the  Dole  government  and  an  attempt  to  place 
Princess  Kailulani  on  the  throne.  Even  after  she  had  lost 
her  kingdom,  Princess  Kailulani  had  many  suitors  for  her 
hand,  not  all  of  whom  she  promised  to  marry.  Princess 
Kailulani,  heir  to  the  throne  lost  to  the  Kalakaua  dynasty  by 
her  aunt  Liliuokalani,  died  on  the  6th  of  March,  1899.  Her 
mother  was  the  princess  Miriam,  and  her  father  A.  S.  Gleg- 
horn,  a  Scotch  merchant. 

Sanford  B.  Dole,  president  of  the  Hawaiian  republic  at  the 


380  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

time  of  the  annexation,  and  a  strong  promoter  of  that  measure, 
was  born  in  the  islands  of  missionary  parentage  in  1844.  He 
graduated  at  Williams  college,  Massachusetts,  read  law  in  Bos- 
ton, and  practised  his  profession  at  Honolulu,  ever  sustaining 
a  high  reputation  for  ability  and  integrity. 

As  each  person  living  his  life  on  this  planet  has  his  days 
of  youth  and  romance,  so  the  people  of  every  land  have  their 
Golden  Age,  at  which  time  life  is  loveliest  and  best.  Now 
the  Golden  Age.  of  this  pearly  archipelago  was  prior  to  the 
advent  of  Kamehameha  the  Conqueror,  when  each  island  had 
its  own  king,  and  there  was  just  fighting  enough  among  them 
to  keep  all  healthy  and  happy.  Could  we  go  back  far  enough 
into  the  prehistoric  ages,  we  should  find  that  several  chieftains 
once  ruled  on  each  island,  which  made  it  hot  for  them  at 
times.  Like  Peter  the  Great  of  Eussia,  this  first  Kamehameha 
lived  for  his  people,  and  for  people  not  his  as  well,  that  is  for 
the  inhabitants  of  the  other  isles,  whom  he  made  his  people, 
and  their  lands  his  country;  after  which  he  loved  them  all  as 
his  own;  and  were  they  not  his  own,  since  he  had  fairly  and 
honorably  appropriated  them,  and  was  strong  enough  to  hold 
them?  Few  of  the  natives  care  who  is  king  or  president  so 
long  as  they  have  enough  to  eat;  they  care  not  for  citizenship, 
nor  do  they  desire  participation  in  public  affairs;  if  they  are 
left  alone  and  have  no  taxes  to  pay  they  are  content.  They  care 
little  for  clothing,  and  use  but  little  of  it.  They  make  huts 
of  grass  to  live  in,  or  they  will  dwell  in  content  on  the  grass 
without  any  hut.  As  a  rule  taro  root  and  cocoanuts  are  not 
difficult  to  obtain,  and  with  these  in  plenty  they  are  well  off, 
though  mango  and  bread-fruit  are  good  for  a  change. 

On  the  2nd  of  August  1898  Queen  Liliuokalani  returned  to 
Honolulu,  and  was  received  by  her  people  midst  chaunts  and 
croonings,  and  witch-dancing,  mingled  with  tears  and  low 
cries  of  aloha!  aloha!  Though  alas!  but  an  uncrowned  woman, 
she  was  still  queen  to  the  poor  and  ignorant  king- worshippers 
of  her  native  isle,  Hawaii  nei!  Queen  Liliuokalani  felt  that 
she  should  receive  remuneration  for  the  loss  of  her  throne  and 
the  revenue  from  the  crown  lands;  but  while  congress  delayed, 
the  members  being  absorbed  as  to  their  reelection,  the  queen 
was  met  with  what  the  gods  give  their  best  beloved,  death. 

Much  is  said,  more  perhaps  than  the  matter  justifies,  of  the 
wisdom  of  taking  these  islands,  and  holding  them  as  a  territory 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF    THE    PACIFIC    381 

of  the  United  States.  It  is  not  a  question  of  such  paramount 
importance,  one  way  or  the  other,  as  certain  politicians  would 
have  us  believe,  though  it  seems  clearly  to  me  better  for  us 
to  have  them.  The  native  population  need  not  give  us  much 
concern,  not  more  surely  than  our  own  savage  wards,  whom 
we  have  caged  for  the  most  part  in  reservations,  all  there  are 
left  of  them.  Native  nations  when  not  wanted  have  an  amiable 
way  of  disappearing  before  a  superior  race,  and  the  better  the 
treatment,  the  more  they  are  fed  by  civilized  condiments,  the 
quicker  they  pass  away.  Our  savages  are  all  gentlemen;  like 
the  great  lords  of  Europe,  the  noble  red  man  of  the  forest  will 
not  work.  Kanakas  are  lazy  enough,  and  will  be  so  as  long 
as  obesity  is  a  standard  of  beauty,  but  they  are  not  quite  so 
bad  as  our  aboriginals.  Hence  let  us  hope  they  may  live  longer, 
and  perhaps  even  yet  breed  for  us  policemen  and  presidents. 

Senator  Hoar  of  Massachusetts  favored  annexation  perfunc- 
torily, not  because  it  was  of  so  much  importance,  as  he  said 
but  because  it  was  of  so  little  importance.  He  did  not  regard 
it  as  the  initial  step  toward  imperialism,  and  the  annexation  of 
more  territory;  which  position,  taken  by  one  of  our  most  able 
statesmen,  was  regarded  by  many  as  a  negative  condemnation 
of  the  measure.  Yet  while  protesting  against  what  might  fol- 
low annexation,  he  acquiesced  in  it,  if  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  our  assuming  the  responsibility  of  sovereignty  over  a  peo- 
ple less  in  number  than  one  of  our  fourth  rate  cities  was  not 
a  question  worth  so  much  discussion.  If  his  party,  or  any 
party,  wanted  the  islands,  they  could  have  them  so  far  as  he 
was  concerned. 

The  annexation  of  Hawaii  was  an  advance  in  the  interests 
of  commerce  and  of  national  development.  In  the  message 
of  the  executive  to  congress  in  December  1897,  the  policy  of 
the  government  was  clearly  defined.  The  president  said: 
"  While  consistently  disavowing  from  a  very  early  period  any 
aggressive  absorption  in  regard  to  the  Hawaiian  group,  a  long 
series  of  declarations  through  three-quarters  of  a  century  has 
proclaimed  the  vital  interest  of  the  United  States  in  the  inde- 
pendent life  of  the  islands  and  their  intimate  commercial  de- 
pendence upon  this  country.  At  the  same  time  it  has  been 
repeatedly  asserted  that  in  no  event  could  the  entity  of  Ha- 
waiian statehood  cease  by  the  passage  of  the  islands  under 
the  domination  or  influence  of  another  power  than  the  United 


383  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

States.  Under  these  circumstances  the  logic  of  events  required 
that  annexation,  heretofore  offered,  but  declined,  should  in  the 
ripeness  of  time  come  about  as  the  natural  result  of  the 
strengthening  ties  that  bind  us  to  those  islands,  and  be  recog- 
nized by  the  free  will  of  the  Hawaiian  state." 

Annexation  being  accomplished,  certain  improvements  were 
deemed  desirable;  as,  for  example,  the  construction  of  barracks, 
the  laying  of  a  system  of  telegraphic  cables  connecting  the 
islands,  railways,  and  other  public  works.  The  laws  in  force 
in  the  islands  at  the  time  of  annexation  were  to  remain  valid 
until  superseded  by  new  laws.  Five  commissioners  were  ap- 
pointed by  the  president  to  visit  the  islands  and  lay  before 
congress  a  plan  for  their  government.  The  commissioners  were 
S.  M.  Cullom  and  R.  K.  Hitt  of  Illinois,  John  T.  Morgan  of 
Alabama,  and  S.  B.  Dole  and  W.  F.  Frear  of  the  .Hawaiian 
islands,  it  having  been  stipulated  in  the  annexation  act  that 
three  of  the  commissioners  should  belong  to  the  United  States 
and  two  to  the  islands.  Among  other  schemes  it  was  suggested 
that  the  government  of  Hawaii  should  be  similar  to  that  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  a  ward  of  the  United  States,  as  it  was 
thought  that  this  system  would  escape  the  complications  of 
a  territorial  government  with  modified  suffrage.  A  simple 
territorial  form,  like  Alaska  and  the  others,  was  finally  deemed 
best. 

In  a  preamble  to  the  resolutions  of  congress  providing  for 
annexation  is  given  the  offer  of  the  Hawaiian  republic  to  cede 
all  of  its  sovereignty  and  absolute  title  to  the  government  and 
crown  lands.  The  cession  was  then  accepted  by  resolution, 
and  the  islands  declared  annexed.  The  public  debt  of  Hawaii, 
not  to  exceed  $4,000,000  was  assumed;  Chinese  immigration 
prohibited;  and  all  treaties  with  other  powers  were  declared 
null. 

At  the  time  of  annexation  the  currency  unit  of  value  was 
the  same  as  in  the  United  States.  The  islanders  made  silver 
and  paper  money;  their  gold  was  all  of  American  mintage. 
The  Hawaiian  silver  money  amounted  to  $1,000,000;  total 
money  in  circulation  $3,500,000;  total  revenue,  1896,  $2,283,- 
070;  public  debt,  $4,101,174.  The  labor  market  was  reported 
overstocked;  wages  about  the  same  as  in  the  United  States, 
except  for  farm  hands,  which  were  lower.  The  islands  import 
all  the  necessities  of  life  which  they  use,  except  sugar,  fruit, 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF    THE    PACIFIC    383 

and  vegetables  which  they  export.  Imports  $9,000,000;  ex- 
ports $16,000,000,  nearly  all  of  which  business  was  done  with 
the  United  States. 

Upon  the  annexation  fifty-five  vessels,  most  of  them  engaged 
in  the  interisland  trade  changed  registry.  Twenty-four  were 
steamers,  four  full-rigged  ships,  ten  barks,  and  seventeen 
schooners.  Most  of  the  interisland  transportation  was  per- 
formed by  two  companies  with  fifteen  steamers.  There  were 
three  railways,  the  Oahu;  the  Kahului  railway  on  Maui  island; 
and  the  Hawaiian,  on  the  island  of  Hawaii. 

In  1876  when  the  reciprocal  treaty  was  made  there  were 
twenty-six  planters  producing  annually  20,000,000  pounds  of 
sugar;  in  1896  the  islands  sent  to  the  United  States  350,000,- 
000  pounds  of  sugar.  The  price  in  the  United  States  was  based 
on  the  cost  of  the  product  from  Cuba,  Brazil,  and  the  Philip- 
pine islands,  which  paid  a  duty  of  two  cents  a  pound.  Upon 
the  importation  of  1896  this  would  be  $7,000,000,  which 
amount  was  saved  to  the  planters  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  by 
reason  of  the  treaty.  Hence  we  were  open  to  grave  doubts  as 
to  their  sincerity  when  they  professed  opposition  to  annexation. 
So  long  as  the  wealthy  sugar  planters  by  spending  their  money 
could  dominate  a  weak  government,  indicate  the  laws  they 
would  like  made,  and  have  things  pretty  much  their  own  way 
they  were  content,  well  knowing  that  under  United  States 
government  they  would  have  fewer  special  advantages  over 
others. 

The  effect  of  annexation  on  sugar  was  to  increase  the  pro- 
duction of  cane  and  limit  the  cultivation  of  the  sugar  beet; 
but  some  time  would  elapse  before  the  new  cane-fields  attained 
a  high  state  of  cultivation.  The  economic  oppression  to  which 
the  newly  acquired  lands  have  so  long  been  subject,  gives  as- 
surance that  with  the  removal  of  impediments  industries  of 
all  kinds  will  greatly  expand.  As  Hawaiian  sugar  was  admitted 
free  into  the  United  States  under  a  reciprocity  treaty,  the  sugar 
interest  opposed  annexation,  as  the  cane-fields  of  Hawaii  would 
then  remain  permanently  within  the  tariff  regulations  of  the 
United  States.  The  beet-sugar  men  desired  both  to  defeat 
annexation  and  repeal  the  reciprocity  treaty,  that  thus  no  more 
cane-sugar  land  might  be  brought  into  the  union,  and  no  more 
sugar  be  admitted  free  of  duty, — a  policy  so  selfish  as  to  react 
on  its  advocates. 


384  THE  NEW   PACIFIC 

There  were  other  issues  however  which  might  affect  unfa- 
vorably the  monopolists  who  were  making  rapid  fortunes  prior 
to  annexation.  If  there  were  no  duties  on  sugar,  a  tax  might 
be  imposed,  and  monopoly  rendered  less  oppressive.  Contract 
labor,  such  as  rules  in  the  islands,  is  contrary  to  the  labor  policy 
in  the  United  States,  and  the  sugar-growers  affirmed  that  they 
could  make  no  money  without  contract  labor.  Chinese  and 
Japanese  labor  has  been  in  good  supply  at  $15  a  month,  the 
laborer  to  furnish  his  own  food.  These  wages  were  sure  to 
advance  under  the  exclusion  laws  of  the  United  States.  The 
application  of  the  coasting  laws  to  the  trade  between  Hawaiian 
and  United  States  ports  it  was  claimed  by  those  interested 
would  prove  detrimental  to  shipping. 

There  was  danger  that  the  islands  would  be  flooded  with 
Japanese  shortly  after  annexation,  and  measures  were  discussed 
to  stop  the  influx.  Anticipating  annexation  and  labor  compli- 
cations, the  planters  obtained  permits  from  the  Hawaiian  gov- 
ernment to  import  6,000  contract  Japanese,  but  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  sugar  industry  was  so  great  that  more  laborers 
were  required  from  some  quarter.  Complaints  were  made  to 
the  Chinese  and  Japanese  consuls  that  their  people  were  im- 
posed upon  and  badly  treated  by  the  overseers,  and  a  guarantee 
was  required  from  the  planter's  association  that  these  impo- 
sitions should  not  continue. 

Japan,  following  the  lead  of  civilized  nations  usual  in  such 
cases,  made  a  formal  protest  against  the  annexation  of  Hawaii 
by  the  United  States,  on  the  ground  that  the  equilibrium  of 
the  Pacific  powers  would  be  disturbed,  the  rights  of  Japanese 
subjects  in  the  islands  imperilled,  and  payment  of  the  Japanese 
det>t  delayed.  Reply  was  made  that  the  United  States  would 
assume  no  treaty  obligations  of  the  Hawaiian  government,  but 
had  no  intention  of  disturbing  friendly  relations,  and  did  not 
believe  that  there  was  any  thing  in  the  treaty  prejudicial  to 
the  rights  of  Japan.  There  were  25,000  Japanese  in  Hawaii 
having  property  rights  and  the  privilege  of  citizenship;  in  case 
of  annexation  the  former  would  be  respected,  but  they  could 
not  become  citizens  of  the  United  States,  neither  directly  nor 
by  way  of  Hawaiian  annexation,  being  Asiatics  and  neither 
white  nor  black.  Said  the  London  Graphic,  "  Japan  is  likely 
to  defeat  her  own  ends  by  addressing  a  bellicose  remonstrance 
to  the  United  States  on  the  subject  of  Hawaii.  The  policy 


HAWAII,   THE   PEARL   OF   THE    PACIFIC    385 

of  annexation  is  not  very  popular  in  America,  but  any  attempt 
at  dictation  will  only  be  resented,  and  will  strengthen  the  case 
for  the  annexationists  by  the  suggestion  of  an  eventual  Japa- 
nese annexation." 

The  principal  journal  of  Russia,  the  Novoe  Vremya,  also 
entered  a  non-official  protest  against  annexation,  upon  the  gen- 
eral principle  that  the  power  of  the  United  States  must  be 
restricted;  more  likely,  however,  because  by  annexation  Russia 
would  lose  the  opportunity  to  secure  Korea  in  exchange  for 
assisting  Japan  to  Hawaii.  Great  Britain  however  was  be- 
nignant. When  Mr  Becket  in  the  house  of  commons  asked 
if  this  most  important  coaling  station  was  to  be  allowed  to  pass 
to  the  United  States  without  protest,  Mr  Curzon,  parliamen- 
tary secretary  for  the  foreign  office  replied  that  England's  rights 
according  to  international  law  would  be  fully  maintained,  with 
which  retort  cavillers  were  obliged  to  be  content. 

Until  recently  Japan  allowed  none  of  her  subjects  to  go 
to  the  Hawaiian  islands  except  under  labor  contracts.  Then 
was  made  a  treaty  with  the  Hawaiian  government  which  gave 
unlimited  admission  to  Japanese,  and  five  lines  of  steamers 
were  put  on  between  Japan  and  Honolulu,  each  making 
monthly  trips,  and  each  steamer  bringing  to  the  islands  from 
200  to  800  Japanese.  To  check  this  avalanche,  the  Hawaiian 
government  passed  a  law  that  no  person  might  land  without 
having  fifty  dollars  in  his  possession. 

During  the  insurrection  of  1895  arrests  of  some  200  persons 
were  made  by  the  Hawaiian  government,  among  them  being 
Japanese,  some  of  whom  were  kept  in  jail  one  or  two  months. 
For  this  the  Japanese  government  wanted  $200,000,  but  would 
take  $75,000.  Without  admitting  the  justice  of  the  claim, 
President  McTCinley  preferred  all  such  matters  settled  before 
annexation,  and  the  Hawaiian  cabinet  ordered  the  money  paid 
accordingly. 

When  on  the  13th  of  July  the  steamer  Coptic  arrived  at 
Honolulu  with  information  that  the  islands  were  indeed  part 
of  the  United  States,  the  inhabitants  broke  forth  in  wild  ex- 
citement. Men  shouted  until  they  were  hoarse;  steam  whistles 
were  turned  on;  bands  played,  guns  boomed,  fire  works  were 
set  off,  and  flags  and  gay  decorations  covered  the  buildings. 
A  silver  cup  was  presented  to  the  captain  of  the  steamer  for 
bringing  the  news. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

PHILIPPINE     AECHIPELAGO     AND     ASIATIC     ISLES 

IN  1559  the  viceroy  of  New  Spain  was  ordered  by  King 
Philip  to  send  forth  an  expedition  for  the  temporal  and  spirit- 
ual conquest  of  the  Philippines,  which  was  done.  With 
Legaspi  and  his  soldiers  were  sent  "  holy  guides  to  unfurl  and 
wave  the  banners  of  Christ  in  the  remotest  parts  of  those  isl- 
ands, and  drive  the  devil  from  the  tyrannical  possession  which 
he  has  held  for  so  many  ages,  usurping  to  himself  the  adora- 
tion of  those  people".  And  Christianity  after  the  Spanish 
fashion  has  reigned  there  ever  since. 

The  conquest  of  Malacca,  in  the  Golden  Chersonese,  by  the 
Portuguese  in  1511,  gave  knowledge  of  islands  of  spices  which 
Antonio  de  Abreo  sailed  to  see.  After  finding  the  Moluccas 
he  returned  and  told  Captain  Fernan  Andrada,  who  told 
Francisco  Serrano,  who  visited  the  Spice  islands  and  fought 
the  pirates.  All  which  coming  to  the  ears  of  Magellan  led  to 
his  discovery.  After  that  King  Philip,  being  advised  by  the 
viceroy  of  New  Spain  and  the  friar  Andres  de  Urdaneta  that 
the  voyage  to  the  Spice  islands  and  Magellan's  important  dis- 
covery might  be  more  easily  than  elsewhere  made  from  the 
west  side  of  New  Spain,  ordered  equipped,  as  before  mentioned, 
a  fleet  for  the  South  sea,  in  the  port  of  Navidad,  the  command 
of  which  was  given  to  Miguel  Lopez  de  Legazpi,  a  resident 
of  New  Spain,  and  native  of  Quipuzcoa.  Sailing  in  1564  with 
five  ships  and  500  men,  Legazpi  crossed  the  ocean  and  anch- 
ored at  Cebu.  After  subduing  this  island  for  Spain,  the 
Spaniards  turned  to  Luzon,  and  entering  Manila  bay  saw  a 
town  on  the  shore  by  a  river,  which  was  fortified  and  defended 
by  a  chief  named  Mora.  Across  the  river  was  another  town, 
whose  chief  was  Matanda,  also  fortified  by  stockades  and  de- 
fended with  bronze  cannon.  Taking  possession  May  9,  1571, 
Legazpi  founded  the  town  of  Manila.  The  chiefs  found  there 

386 


PHILIPPINE    ARCHIPELAGO  387 

were  called  rajas;  and  prior  to  the  Indian  invasion  of  which 
they  were  a  mark,  the  Chinese  were  masters,  and  they  still 
sent  every  year  their  ships  to  Manila  bay  with  iron  copper  and 
gunpowder,  sulphur  quicksilver  and  flour,  besides  cotton  silk 
and  porcelain.  The  Japanese  came  also  from  Nagasaki  to 
trade;  and  being  then  more  arrogant  and  less  enlightened 
than  now,  they  haughtily  demanded  for  their  emperor  suze- 
rainty over  those  isles;  but  the  governor,  Perez  Gomez,  hav- 
ing in  1590  fortified  the  town,  casting  cannon  and  erecting  a 
battery  on  the  point,  building  also  a  cathedral  and  other  stone 
edifices,  paid  no  attention  to  the  high-flying  demands  of  the 
Japanese. 

During  the  seventeenth  century  war  between  the  Dutch 
and  Spanish  raged  fiercely  even  at  this  distance  from  home, 
the  Hollanders  attacking  the  Manila  fleets  to  the  great  damage 
of  the  latter.  Once  a  Dutch  fleet  arrived  off  Manila  bay  which 
might  easily  have  captured  the  city  had  the  Hollanders  known 
that  the  governor  was  ill  and  unprepared  for  them.  There 
was  a  Spanish  colony  at  Formosa  which  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  the  Dutch.  In  1662  the  Chinese  living  in  Manila  were 
goaded  into  revolt  by  the  impositions  of  the  Spaniards,  who 
thereupon  rose  up  and  slew  them  to  the  number  of  24,000.  In 
1762  the  British  admiral,  Cornish,  having  received  instructions 
to  take  the  city,  landed  troops  and  held  the  place  for  $4,000,- 
000  indemnity,  which  was  but  partly  paid. 

Very  long  ago  Antonio  de  Morga,  he  who  fought  the  Dutch- 
man Van  Noort  off  Manila,  wrote  a  history  of  the  Philippine 
islands,  at  the  end  of  which  he  gave  some  interesting  facts 
regarding  the  early  navigation  between  New  Spain  and  the 
Philippines.  He  says  that  immediately  after  the  conquest  of 
the  islands  by  Legaspi,  Navidad  was  the  port  of  outfit  for 
westward  bound  ships  from  New  Spain,  and  afterward  Aca- 
pulco.  The  time  of  departure  was  usually  in  February,  but 
not  later  than  the  20th  of  March,  so  that  the  ships  would  not 
arrive  at  the  Philippines  during  the  westerly  monsoon,  which 
begins  there  in  June. 

The  coast  of  Mexico  being  subject  to  calms,  the  course 
pursued  by  the  galleons  on  leaving  Acapulco  was  southward 
to  latitude  11°  or  10°  north,  where  the  trade  wind  is  steady 
and  reliable,  thence  veering  back  to  latitude  13°,  and  then 
straight  to  the  Ladrones.  Along  this  line  the  ships  would 


388  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

sail  for  seventy  days,  often  times  without  shifting  sail  or 
seeing  land.  Returning,  all  was  not  quite  so  serene.  Leaving 
Manila  with  the  beginning  of  the  westerly  monsoon,  they 
sailed  northeast,  and  even  north  on  meeting  the  easterly  winds, 
continuing  this  course  until  beyond  the  limits  of  the  trade 
wind,  when  they  made  their  way  eastward  to  the  American 
coast  as  best  they  could,  the  time  occupied  in  the  east-bound 
passage  being  usually  five  or  six  months.  At  the  start,  as  Ad- 
miral de  Morga  says,  "  having  gone  about  600  leagues  from 
the  Philippines,  they  pass  between  islands  which  are  seldom 
seen,  and  meet  with  tempests  and  cold  weather  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  islands  Rica  de  Oro  and  Rica  de  Plata." 

Says  a  Spanish  pilot  at  Manila  a  century  or  so  later:  "  The 
navigation  from  the  Philippine  island  to  New  Spain  not  be- 
ing performed  by  the  general  trade  wind,  but  with  all  winds, 
there  can  be  no  fixed  route.  But  it  is  always  the  practice  to 
sail  to  the  north,  leaving  now  as  formerly  the  islands  on  the 
right  hand.  An  intermediate  port  between  the  Philippines 
and  New  Spain  would  at  all  times  be  convenient."  It  is  some- 
what singular  that  the  Spaniards  could  sail  back  and  forth 
every  year  for  200  years,  passing  so  near  the  Hawaiian  islands 
both  in  going  and  returning,  passing  them  on  either  side  in 
every  voyage,  without  once  seeing  this  intermediate  port  which 
would  prove  so  convenient. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  now  what  was  written  of  the  Philip- 
pines by  an  Englishman  a  century  and  a  half  ago.  "  The  isl- 
and of  Luconia  ",  as  the  author  of  Anson's  Voyage  calls  Luzon, 
"though  situated  in  the  latitude  of  15°  north,  is  esteemed 
to  be  in  general  extremely  healthy,  and  the  water  that  is  found 
upon  it  is  said  to  be  the  best  in  the  world.  It  produces  all  the 
fruits  of  the  warm  climates,  and  abounds  in  a  most  excellent 
breed  of  horses,  supposed  to  be  carried  thither  from  Spain. 
It  is  well  seated  for  the  Indian  and  Chinese  trade,  and  the  bay 
and  port  of  Manila,  which  lies  on  its  western  side,  is  perhaps 
the  most  remarkable  on  the  whole  globe,  the  bay  being  a  large 
circular  basin,  near  ten  leagues  in  diameter,  great  part  of  it 
entirely  land-locked.  On  the  east  side  of  this  bay  stands  the 
city  of  Manila,  which  is  large  and  populous.  The  port  peculiar 
to  the  city  is  called  Cabite,  and  lies  near  two  leagues  to  the 
southward;  and  in  this  port  all  the  ships  employed  for  the 
Acapulco  trade  are  usually  stationed." 


PHILIPPINE    ARCHIPELAGO  389 

The  cargo  of  the  galleons,  intended  to  supply  the  wants  of 
Mexico  and  Peru  as  well  as  those  of  Spain,  consisted,  as  an 
eighteenth  century  writer  declares,  of  "  Spices,  all  sorts  of 
Chinese  silks  and  manufactures,  particularly  silk  stockings, 
of  which  I  have  heard  that  no  less  than  50,000  pair  were  the 
usual  number  shipped  in  each  cargo;  vast  quantities  of  Ind- 
ian stuffs,  as  callicoes  and  chints,  which  are  much  worn  in 
America,  together  with  other  minuter  articles,  as  goldsmith's 
work,  which  is  principally  wrought  at  the  city  of  Manila  it- 
self by  the  Chinese;  for  it  is  said  that  there  are  at  least  20,000 
Chinese  who  constantly  reside  there,  either  as  servants,  manu- 
facturers, or  brokers." 

Although  Spain,  by  the  discovery  of  the  Philippine  islands, 
acquired  no  property  in  the  Spice  islands,  no  sooner  was 
Manila  founded  than  it  became  the  most  important  city,  not 
only  of  the  Spanish  possessions  in  that  quarter,  but  of  all  the 
southeastern  isles  of  Asia,  as  well  as  of  the  coast  of  China. 
Communication  was  soon  established  with  the  coast  of  America, 
first  with  Callao,  on  the  coast  of  Peru,  then  with  Panama, 
and  finally  with  Mexico,  which  last  was  guarded  with  every 
aid  and  restriction,  and  continued  for  over  a  century.  Thus 
for  this  trade  were  gathered  at  Manila  from  far  and  near  silks 
and  spices,  and  all  the  Indian  commodities,  of  which  it  was 
soon  the  chief  mart,  for  the  galleons  brought  back  silver  for 
the  goods  sold  at  Acapulco,  so  that  Manila  and  her  merchants 
grew  to  be  exceedingly  opulent,  greatly  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  court  of  Spain,  under  whose  special  care  and  consideration 
was  this  commerce,  which  came  to  be  regulated  by  royal  edict. 

Why  in  its  incipiency  the  Manila  trade  took  its  course  to 
Callao,  instead  of  to  some  more  northern  port,  was  on  account 
of  the  trade  wind  which  favored  that  navigation,  the  voyage 
of  three  or  four  thousand  leagues  to  the  coast  of  Peru  being 
often  made  in  two  months,  though  the  return  was  exceedingly 
troublesome,  and  frequently  occupied  twelve  months,  particu- 
larly if  the  ships  attempted,  as  they  did  at  first,  to  beat  back 
against  the  wind  that  brought  them  over.  Later,  shipmasters 
learned  to  follow  the  coast  northward  to  California,  before 
striking  out  westward  across  the  ocean,  and  they  finally  found 
that  the  voyage  could  be  made  better  both  ways  to  and  from 
Acapulco,  than  to  and  from  either  Callao  or  Panama.  Thus 
from  the  sixteenth  to  the  eighteenth  centuries  this  traffic  con- 


390  .THE   NEW    PACIFIC    11 

tinned,  to  the  great  enrichment  of  Manila,  Mexico,  and 
Spain. 

About  the  time  of  Magellan's  voyage  the  southern  Philip- 
pines were  visited  by  the  Moros,  or  Malay  pirates  from  Borneo. 
Taking  possession  of  Sulu  and  Basilan,  they  rapidly  spread 
over  the  adjacent  isles,  and  finally  occupied  Mindanao,  Balabac, 
and  the  southern  part  of  Palawan.  They  had  many  sanguinary 
encounters  with  the  Spaniards,  but  were  never  entirely  over- 
come. They  were  Mohammedans,  fierce  and  bloody-minded, 
and  hated  the  Spaniards,  and  above  all  the  Spanish  priests, 
with  an  intense  hatred.  Their  weapon  was  the  barong,  some- 
what like  a  butcher's  cleaver,  more  effective  in  battle  than  the 
sixteenth  century  weapons  of  the  Spaniards.  The  Moros 
worked  in  steel,  and  their  barong  was  well  tempered  and 
highly  finished. 

Until  the  coming  of  the  second  viceroy,  Ruis  de  Velasco, 
the  administration  of  the  Philippines  was  under  the  imme- 
diate direction  of  the  viceroy  of  Mexico;  Velasco,  however, 
found  it  necessary  to  appoint  a  visitador  who  would  reside  at 
the  islands  for  the  superintendence  of  their  affairs.  The  gov- 
ernor of  Manila  was  president  of  the  audiencia  and  disposed 
of  all  offices,  except  such  as  belonged  specially  to  the  king's 
monopolies. 

Some  believed  these  islands  to  be  the  Baruffae  of  Ptolemy. 
Magellan  called  the  Philippines  the  archipelago  of  San  Lazaro. 
The  Portuguese  called  them  Manilhas,  being  the  native  name 
of  the  principal  island,  the  natives  being  known  as  Luzonas. 
The  Carolines  were  first  called  the  New  Philippines.  "  Ships 
go  to  Manila,"  says  Torquemada,  "both  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese, from  all  parts  of  the  world,  from  Macao,  Moluccas, 
Malacca,  China,  Japan,  Borneo,  Siam,  Patan,  Kamchatka, 
Europe,  India,  and  South  America." 

Commerce  with  Europe  was  given,  for  a  consideration,  as 
a  monopoly  to  a  company  in  Spain,  while  for  yet  more  princely 
pay  the  sovereigns  gave  all  the  commerce  of  Manila  with  Mexico 
into  the  hands  of  the  Manila  friars  as  a  monopoly.  The  Ma- 
lays manufactured  earthenware,  which  went  to  China,  cotton 
stuff  to  Mexico;  they  plaited  straw  and  strips  of  wood;  they 
made  hats,  some  of  them  selling  as  high  as  $20  each.  Finally 
the  Portuguese  were  driven  away,  and  then  no  vessels  besides 
Spanish  were  allowed  at  Manila  except  those  of  the  Chinese. 


PHILIPPINE   ARCHIPELAGO  391 

One  seeing  the  Philippines  a  hundred  years  ago,  says  that 
the  1,100  islands  were  divided  into  thirty  provinces  with  627 
towns,  an  aggregate  half-civilized  population  of  3,315,790, 
and  an  unknown  number  of  native  savages.  There  were  pres- 
ent 30,000  Chinese.  Manila  had  a  population  of  150,000,  one- 
tenth  of  whom  were  Spaniards  and  Creoles,  and  the  rest  a 
mongrel  intermixture  of  Mongolians  and  other  Asiatics  and 
Europeans. 

The  city  was  divided  into  two  sections,  the  military  and 
the  mercantile,  the  latter  a  suburb.  Lofty  walls  surround  the 
former,  with  the  sea  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  a  broad 
plain  where  the  troops  were  exercised,  and  where  every  even- 
ing the  wealthy  and  indolent  Creoles,  lazily  extended  in  their 
carriages,  displayed  their  foreign  gowns  and  breathed  the  sea 
air.  This  was  the  Champs  Elysees  of  the  Indian  archipelago. 

Luzon  is  broken  by  volcanic  mountains,  and  is  covered  by  a 
rich,  deep  soil,  supporting  great  forests  and  fine  pastures. 
Here  grow  to  fullest  perfection,  cotton,  coffee,  sugar-cane, 
cacao,  indigo,  rice,  tobacco,  abaca  or  vegetable  silk,  all  kinds 
of  timber,  dye-woods,  pepper,  gums,  cocoanuts,  rattans,  and 
other  products.  On  the  shores  are  shells,  pearls,  and  nacre, 
or  mother-of-pearl;  the  sea  swarms  with  excellent  fish;  in 
the  interior  are  all  kinds  of  wild  beasts  and  reptiles,  from 
buffalo  and  deer  to  crocodiles  and  snakes. 

For  manufactures  there  are  the  metals  of  the  mountains, 
gold  silver  and  copper,  and  the  products  of  the  valleys,  with 
no  lack  of  skilled  and  cheap  labor,  mostly  Asiatic  artisans,  who 
make  cigars,  baskets,  straw  hats,  pottery,  matting,  cloth,  silk, 
rope,  and  many  other  articles,  besides  ship-building,  carriage- 
making,  and  tanning  leather. 

More  than  thirty  kinds  of  rice  are  here  cultivated,  each 
having  its  individual  process.  Indigo  and  tobacco  are  largely 
raised  and  manufactured,  as  well  as  the  other  articles  named. 
Wheat  is  grown,  and  sugar-making  is  extensive. 

It  was  just  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  Magellan  that  the 
city  of  Manila  was  founded  by  Legaspi  as  the  capital  of  Luzon 
and  the  Philippine  isles,  the  latter  so  named  from  King 
Philip  II.  The  bay  on  the  shore  of  which  the  city  stands  is 
120  miles  in  circumference,  and  in  monsoons  is  so  unsafe  that 
the  larger  vessels  seek  shelter  in  the  port  of  Cavite.  Prior  to 
its  capture  by  the  United  States,  the  city,  partly  walled,  had 


392  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

its  fashionable  quarter  with  two  palaces,  one  for  the  governor 
and  captain-general,  and  one  for  the  admiral  of  the  fleet. 
There  were  large  mercantile  houses,  a  Chinese  bazaar,  bar- 
racks, churches,  cigar  factory  covering  six  acres  and  employ- 
ing 10,000  women,  stone  bridge,  suspension  bridge,  old  fort 
of  Santiago,  mint,  museum,  arsenal,  university,  academy  of 
arts,  hospital,  public  gardens,  cafes,  convents,  monasteries, 
theatres,  and  other  objects  and  places  of  interest. 

The  interiors  of  several  of  the  1,400  Philippine  isles  have 
never  been  explored  nor  their  inhabitants  subdued.  Most  of 
the  larger  islands  are  mountainous,  and  covered  with  a  re- 
dundant vegetation.  Geology  points  to  the  whole  archipelago 
as  a  late  upheaval  of  coral  reefs.  The  minerals  present  are 
not  everywhere  in  very  great  quantities.  The  flora  is  Malayan, 
and  there  are  but  few  mammals.  The  buffalo  is  used  for  field 
work;  cattle  and  goats  are  common.  Butterflies  are  a  feature, 
and  alligators  and  turtles  abound.  There  are  three  seasons, 
cold,  hot,  and  wet,  the  first  extending  from  November  to 
March,  the  second,  continuing  on  to  June,  and  the  third  to 
October.  The  hot  season  is  very  hot,  but  the  cold  season  is 
not  very  cold.  Thunder  storms  command  attention,  and  the 
typhoon  plays  periodically  among  the  northern  isles. 

The  soil  of  the  Philippines  is  in  places  exceedingly  rich, 
and  all  the  Malayan  fruits  and  vegetables  are  grown  in  pro- 
fusion,— mangoes,  plantains,  medlars,  sweet-potatoes,  ground- 
nuts, and  in  the  higher  altitudes  wheat.  Rice  is  extensively 
cultivated,  being  the  staple  food  of  the  natives.  The  chief 
commercial  products  are  sugar,  coffee,  and  cocoa,  tobacco,  and 
Manila  hemp. 

The  negritos,  or  aboriginal  inhabitants,  now  reduced  in 
numbers,  were  dark  and  dwarfish,  nearly  naked  and  without 
fixed  habitations,  the  dog  their  only  domesticated  animal; 
and  they  lived  on  fish  fruits  honey  roots  and  game.  Infused 
with  this  low  humanity  at  various  eras  and  from  various 
quarters  were  the  Malayan  tribes,  which  brought  about  the 
present  intermixture. 

Trade  between  the  Philippines  and  China  and  Japan  has 
been  extensively  carried  on  from  the  earliest  times  of  which 
we  have  record.  But  with  Spanish  American  occupation,  a 
break  occurred  which  has  never  been  repaired,  owing  to  the 
narrow  commercial  policy  of  Spain,  which  diverted  nearly  all 


PHILIPPINE    ARCHIPELAGO  393 

commercial  products  to  Navidad  and  Acapulco.  And  even 
this  despotic  commerce  was  strangely  restricted,  as  but  a 
single  annual  galleon  was  for  a  century  or  more  allowed  to 
pass  either  way  between  Manila  and  Acapulco,  and  that  under 
government  supervision,  which  limited  the  value  of  the  cargo 
to  a  fixed  sum.  And  if  this  were  not  enough,  further  re- 
strictions were  imposed,  a  monopoly  within  a  monopoly,  in 
the  creation  of  the  Royal  Company  of  the  Philippines  in  1785, 
the  privileges  expiring  in  1834.  Eastern  goods  for  Spain  con- 
tinued in  this  way  to  be  sent  to  Acapulco,  to  be  packed  on 
mules  through  Mexico  and  reshipped  at  Vera  Cruz  until  1764, 
when  the  galleons  were  sent  round  Cape  Horn.  Merchandise 
from  Manila  and  the  Spice  islands  sometimes  found  its  way 
across  the  Isthmus  from  Panama  to  Portobello,  but  these 
ports  were  reserved  for  the  use  principally  of  Peru,  and  the 
other  provinces  of  South  America.  Permission  was  in  1809 
granted  to  a  company  of  English  merchants  to  establish  a 
house  at  Manila,  and  the  same  privilege  was  later  given  to 
other  nationalities.  Prior  to  1842  Manila  was  the  only  port 
in  the  Philippines  open  to  foreign  trade,  when  Cebu  was 
granted  the  same  privilege,  other  ports  being  placed  in  the 
same  category  later.  Textile  fabrics  are  here  manufactured, 
pina  silk,  and  cotton;  also  pottery,  furniture,  musical  instru- 
ments, carriages,  ropes,  baskets,  mats,  and  hats.  On  some  of 
the  islands  horse-raising  is  a  leading  pursuit. 

Besides  Malays  and  Negritos,  the  Philippines  have  a  mixed 
population  of  Paquan  negroes,  Chinese,  and  Japanese,  with 
their  endless  intermixtures.  The  250,000  inhabitants  of  the 
capital,  Manila,  on  Luzon  island,  divide  themselves  into  two 
sections,  the  official  and  the  commercial,  the  part  of  the  city 
occupied  by  the  former  being  surrounded  by  a  wall,  while  the 
latter  is  a  suburb.  Along  the  river  are  situated  the  best 
houses,  of  plain  exterior  but  within  of  oriental  furnishing, 
with  a  profusion  of  costly  Chinese  and  Japanese  ware,  and 
gold  silver  and  silk  ornamentations.  These  homes  are  of  one 
story,  built  to  withstand  hurricanes  and  earthquakes,  with  a 
gallery  round  them  which  may  be  closed  with  shutters  having 
panels  with  mother-of-pearl  panes,  which  admit  the  light  but 
exclude  the  heat.  There  are  good  macadamized  roads,  with 
granite  sidewalks,  and  on  the  riverbank  boat-landings  and 
bamboo  bath  houses. 


394  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

In  their  native  state  the  inhabitants  are  low  in  the  scale  of 
humanity.  Intermixture  with  foreigners  raised  them  a  little 
in  some  respects  and  lowered  them  in  others.  The  friars 
found  them  ignorant  and  degraded.  Schools  were  established 
and  the  rudiments  of  education  given  to  some  of  them.  A 
little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing.  In  this  instance  it  bred 
ambition,  a  desire  in  the  governed  to  take  part  in  the  govern- 
ment. The  members  of  the  monastic  fraternities,  some  of 
them  their  teachers,  these  Filipinos  came  to  regard  as  agents 
of  the  Spanish  government,  and  many  began  to  hate,  and 
some  to  persecute  them.  The  church  was  accused  of  acquir- 
ing great  wealth,  of  grinding  the  people,  and  avoiding  taxa- 
tion. By  absorbing  the  functions  of  government  and  con- 
trolling commerce,  the  clergy  secured  enormous  revenues,  and 
became  the  richest  religious  fraternity  in  the  world.  The 
rebellion  of  the  natives  was  directed  primarily  against  the 
church.  From  the  time  that  Magellan  set  out  on  the  religious 
crusade  that  cost  him  his  life,  religious  zeal,  diluted  largely 
with  avarice,  has  eaten  the  people  up,  Spaniards  as  well  as 
natives,  to  a  certain  extent.  The  four  orders  had  full  swing 
there,  the  Augustines  coming  with  Legaspi,  and  the  Domini- 
cans, Franciscans,  and  Jesuits  following.  The  archbishop 
with  three  suffragans  and  400  secular  clergy  lived  in  Manila; 
the  regular  clergy  number  1,200  including  missionaries.  The 
priest  imposes  his  tax  and  rules  the  village;  he  is  hated  by 
some  and  feared  by  others. 

Serious  charges  have  been  brought  against  the  religious 
orders  in  the  Philippines,  both  Filipinos  and  Spaniards  de- 
claring against  them.  Says  Ramon  R.  Lala,  the  native  Filipino 
author:  "  The  monks  have  opposed  every  attempt  at  reform. 
Their  policy  has  ever  been  the  policy  of  ignorance,  knowing 
that  their  livelihood  depended  upon  its  perpetuation.  It  has 
been  their  aim  chiefly  to  limit  public  instruction  to  the  mere 
rudiments  of  knowledge,  giving  to  every  subject  a  religious 
bias.  Even  the  colleges  and  the  university  of  Manila  are  not 
free  from  their  narrow  supervision,  while  they  have  ever  main- 
tained a  rigid  censorship  over  the  press.  None  but  the  most 
enlightened  natives,  of  course,  recognize  as  yet  their  spiritual 
wants  or  desire  a  higher  moral  state,  but  many  of  them  pri- 
vately attest  their  waning  belief  in  the  church  monopoly  of 
all  things  temporal  in  their  lives.  Still,  those  that  impugn 


PHILIPPINE   ARCHIPELAGO  395 

and  combat  ecclesiastical  preponderance  are  obliged  to  do  so 
by  secret  word  or  in  a  limited  conclave.  But  the  enlighten- 
ing and  invigorating  effects  incidental  to  American  occupa- 
tion will  inevitably  loose  their  tongues,  and  rally  recruits  to 
their  new  standard  of  thought.  Of  this  I  hope  and  expect 
great  results.  The  present  hierarchy  costs  the  government 
about  $800,000  a  year.  The  salaries  of  the  priests  range  from 
$500  to  $2,500  per  annum;  but  in  addition  they  derive  a  large 
income  from  the  sale  of  masses,  indulgences,  marriage  burial 
and  baptismal  fees.  The  several  orders  have  immense  reve- 
nues from  investments  in  the  islands,  and  in  Hongkong.  They 
possess  magnificent  estates;  but  notwithstanding  their  enor- 
mous wealth  they  are  hard  taskmasters,  grinding  the  poor  to 
the  paying  of  the  last  penny.  Their  injustice  and  tyranny 
have  of  late  aroused  bitter  complaints,  and  are  a  chief  cause 
of  the  late  insurrection;  and  yet  the  picture  has  its  lights  as 
well  as  its  shadows.  The  friars  have  in  many  places  the  con- 
fidence of  the  natives,  and  on  the  whole  surely  influence  them 
for  the  repression  of  their  vicious  and  brutal  instincts.  A 
half-barbarous  people  can  be  led  only  by  superstition,  and  a 
semi-sacerdotal  government  is  most  effective  among  an  ig- 
norant people.  The  friar  is  usually  from  a  lowly  family,  and 
is  therefore  able  at  once  to  enter  into  sympathy  with  the 
humble  life  of  the  people.  He  is  doctor,  architect,  engineer, 
and  adviser;  in  all  things  truly  the  father  of  the  community, 
the  representative  of  the  white  race  and  of  social  order.  Such 
good  men  and  true  are  to  be  found.  There  are,  however, 
many  black  sheep  among  them,  and  the  gross  immorality  of 
those  that  should  be  examples  of  virtue  has  been  a  great  im- 
pediment to  the  work  of  the  church  among  thinking  natives. 
There  are  some  Chinese  and  native  friars.  The  Chinese  often 
adopt  Christianity  for  social  or  business  reasons,  or  that  they 
may  marry  the  daughter  of  a  native.  Contests  between  the 
church  and  state  make  up  a  large  part  of  the  recent  history 
of  the  islands.  The  archbishops,  with  an  exaggerated  idea  of 
their  own  importance,  became  exceedingly  troublesome  to 
the  civil  power  by  reason  of  their  excessive  claims.  This  was 
never  more  manifest  than  in  the  pretended  immunity  from 
all  state  control.  Upon  one  occasion  the  governor  demanded 
of  the  archbishop  to  produce  several  persons  charged  with 
capital  and  other  crimes  who  had  found  asylum  in  a  convent- 


396  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

The  archbishop  promptly  refused,  claiming  the  prerogatives 
of  sanctuary.  The  accused  not  only  openly  defied  the  gov- 
ernor, but  armed  themselves,  intending  to  resist  should  he 
endeavor  to  apprehend  them.  The  governor,  learning  this, 
arrested  the  archbishop,  and  confined  him  and  the  priests  that 
had  been  his  abettors  in  prison,  charging  them  with  con- 
spiracy against  the  government.  A  horde  of  Franciscan, 
Dominican,  and  Augustinian  friars,  forgetting  the  fierce  rival- 
ries among  themselves,  joined  with  a  mob  of  natives,  stormed 
the  governors  palace.  The  governor  and  his  son  were  killed 
and  their  bodies  horribly  mutilated.  The  archbishop  was  pro- 
claimed governor  of  the  colony.  On  four  different  occasions 
the  governorship  of  the  colony  had  been  vested  in  the  arch- 
bishop. Every  governor-general  who  has  attempted  to  intro- 
duce a  liberal  policy  has  been  recalled;  for  the  friars'  com- 
bined influence  is  all  powerful.  Not  even  the  archbishop  has 
been  able  to  prevail  over  the  corporation  of  the  friars;  and 
if  he  would  retain  his  seat  he  must  not  oppose  their  traditional 
prerogatives,  nor  work  for  the  reform  that  would  mean  the 
decline  of  the  orders.  Indeed,  only  a  few  years  ago,  one  arch- 
bishop who  had  made  several  ineffectual  attempts  to  correct 
the  abuses  in  the  orders  was  one  morning  found  dead  in  his 
bed.  His  successors  have  taken  good  care  to  profit  by  his 
example." 

Nokaleda,  archbishop  of  Manila,  denied  as  false  the  charges 
made  on  all  sides  against  the  church.  The  priests  had  never 
wronged  the  people,  he  said,  and  as  for  the  large  amount  of 
church  property  held,  and  its  exemption  from  taxation,  the 
property  was  the  fruits  of  charity,  and  as  the  community  were 
catholics,  exemption  from  taxation  wrought  no  injustice,  and 
was  but  another  form  of  further  giving. 

Said  Archbishop  Dosal,  of  the  Philippines,  "I  earnestly 
hope  the  islands  will  not  remain  Spanish,  because  the  rebels 
are  now  so  strong  that  such  a  course  would  inevitably  cause 
appalling  bloodshed.  The  reconquest  of  the  natives  is  im- 
possible until  after  years  of  the  most  cruel  warfare."  He  did 
not  wish  the  islands  to  become  absolutely  independent,  because 
it  was  certain  that  dissensions  would  occur  which  would  result 
in  incessant  strife,  and  a  lapse  into  barbarism  under  the  natural 
indolence  of  the  tropical  race.  The  only  hope  was  that  a 
strong  western  power  would  intervene.  Delay  was  dangerous, 


PHILIPPINE   ARCHIPELAGO  397 

because  the  people  are  intoxicated,  vainglorious,  and  restless. 
He  said  it  was  undeniable  that  the  religious  orders  must  go, 
because  the  whole  people  had  determined  to  abolish  them,  now 
that  they  were  able  to  render  their  retention  impossible.  He 
laid  the  chief  blame  upon  the  Dominicans,  Augustines,  and 
Franciscans,  the  richest  orders,  and  next  upon  the  Benedictines 
and  Capuchins,  which  are  of  less  importance.  The  Jesuits  the 
archbishop  held  comparatively  blameless;  but  the  rival  orders, 
he  said,  quarrel  among  themselves,  intrigue,  act  unworthily, 
and  slander  their  opponents,  thus  increasing  their  general  dis- 
favor. The  provincials,  who  are  approximately  equivalent  to 
archdeacons,  are  mainly  responsible.  They  are  utterly  beyond 
the  control  of  the  archbishop,  who  denies  possessing  power. 

Archbishop  Ireland  declared  that  the  church  in  the  islands 
would  conform  to  the  new  conditions,  coming  under  the  laws 
which  govern  the  country  elsewhere.  The  personnel  of  the 
clergy  would  remain  undisturbed.  "  The  Spanish  priests  will 
not  be  required  to  retire,  for  the  reason  that  they,  better  than 
any  one  else,  know  what  is  needed  under  the  new  conditions, 
and  can  bring  about  a  change  much  more  easily  than  any 
commission  that  might  be  appointed.  The  clergy  in  the  islands 
is  made  up  of  intelligence  and  tact.  They  will  attend  to  their 
own  work  and  do  it  well.  None  of  our  priests  or  bishops  could 
speak  the  language  of  the  people,  and  would  be  at  a  loss 
to  do  so  as  much  as  the  men  now  at  the  head  of  the  church. 
You  may  be  sure  that  the  priests  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  the 
Philippines  will  be  in  accord  with  American  ideas  and  progres- 
sion, and  they  will  be  left  to  bring  about  the  necessary  change 
in  their  own  way,  and  it  will  be  the  best  way." 

Before  the  war  there  were  a  thousand  Spanish  priests  in  the 
islands,  but  after  the  fall  of  Manila  nearly  all  of  them  took 
their  departure.  They  declared  they  never  would  return  if 
Spain  retained  the  islands,  as  the  natives  were  incensed  against 
them,  and  the  Spanish  government  could  not  protect  them. 
The  Jesuits  were  expelled  some  time  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
but  were  allowed  to  return,  to  Manila  only,  in  1852. 

There  are  some  rather  sensible  Filipinos,  though  few  like 
Ramon  Reyes  Lala,  who  thus  spoke  before  the  Wellesley  club 
in  January,  1899.  "  The  Filipinos  are  not  of  a  race  of  irre- 
pressible savages,  a  noisy  horde  of  Asiatic  cut-throats,  unversed 
in  the  ways  of  the  Occident,  demanding  the  boon  of  American 


398  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

citizenship.  They  are  rather  in  many  respects  a  gentle,  ductile 
race,  gifted,  yet  possessed  of  well-defined  limitations.  They 
are  Christians,  and  as  such  ask  for  Christian  forbearance.  They 
are  men,  and  as  such  ask  for  humane  treatment.  I  have  seen 
it  stated  that  in  the  interior  of  some  of  the  Philippine  provinces 
are  many  tribes  of  irresponsible  savage  pagans,  and  cannibals, 
all  whom  if  the  islands  were  annexed  would  be  a  perpetual 
menace  to  the  integrity  of  the  republic,  a  persistent  problem 
in  the  body  politic.  There  are  a  few  such  tribes;  but  they 
are  not  the  Filipinos;  they  are  the  degenerate  remnants  of 
the  negro  aborigines,  and  are  fast  dying  out.  It  is  not  with 
these  you  have  to  deal.  Although  I  believe  we  have  a  great 
future,  I  cannot  disguise  to  myself  the  conviction  that  we  are 
not  yet  ready  for  independence.  More  especially  because  the 
Filipinos  have  not  had  the  preparation  for  self-government, 
possessed  by  the  founders  of  the  American  republic.  And 
I  apprehend  that,  intoxicated  with  their  new-found  liberty, 
the  Filipinos  might  perpetrate  excesses  that  would  prove  fatal 
to  the  race.  I  feel  this  all  the  more  when  I  consider  that  the 
revolutionary  leaders,  Aguinaldo  and  his  companions,  though 
fervent  patriots,  do  not  represent  the  best  classes  of  my  coun- 
trymen, who  almost  without  exception  are  for  a  protectorate, 
or  for  annexation. 

"  And  it  is  this,  that  I  too,  a  Filipino,  desire  most  ardently. 
Give  us  an  American  protectorate,  a  territorial  government; 
the  judiciary,  the  customs,  and  the  executive  in  the  hands  of 
federal  officials;  the  interior  and  domestic  administration  in 
the  hands  of  the  Filipinos  themselves.  And  their  self-selected 
officials  will  rule  understandingly  and  well,  without  friction; 
which  would  be  wholly  impossible  for  alien  functionaries,  be- 
gotten of  a  western  civilization." 

The  archbishop  of  Manila  estimates  the  population  of  the 
archipelago  at  7,500,000,  of  which  2,500,000  are  christianized 
natives  and  Chinese.  Four  provinces  have  each  a  population 
of  over  300,000,  namely,  Manila  324,367,  Batangas  308,110, 
Cebu  518,032,  and  Iloilo  500,000.  Nine  provinces  have  a  pop- 
ulation of  100,000  or  more.  Luzon  is  in  area  42,000  square 
miles,  and  has  a  population  estimated  by  some  at  5,000,000, 
among  which  are  several  tribes,  the  Tagals  and  Ilocanos  being 
conspicuous. 

Manila  is  situated  on  a  pear-shaped  bay,  thirty  by  twenty-five 


PHILIPPINE    ARCHIPELAGO  399 

miles  in  extent,  lying  in  the  foliage  of  the  steep  volcanic  moun- 
tains of  the  coast  range.  Around  it  is  a  low  plain,  the  upper 
border  traversed  by  streams,  one  of  which,  the  Pasig  river, 
runs  through  the  city,  and  serves  the  purpose  of  a  grand  canal, 
other  streams  emptying  into  it.  The  Pasig  river  divides  the 
city  into  old  and  new  Manila,  the  latter  called  by  the  inhabitants 
Binondo. 

Old  Manila  is  a  fair  type  of  a  Spanish  colonial  walled  town. 
It  has  the  usual  picturesque  moss-covered  fortifications,  draw- 
bridge and  porticullis  at  the  gates,  a  fashionable  promenade, 
the  Luneta,  along  the  city  wall,  and  a  broad  avenue  named 
after  Magellan's  lieutenant,  Legazbi.  The  low,  damp,  plaster- 
less  houses  with  sheet-iron  roofs,  and  for  windows  translucent 
sea-shells  set  in  a  shutter  sliding  over  a  hole  in  the  wall,  tend 
often  to  emphasize  rather  than  to  alleviate  the  intensity  of 
the  hot  moist  air.  On  the  ground  floor  of  the  Filipino's  city 
house  is  his  store  or  his  stable;  on  the  floor  above  he  lives  with 
his  pet  snakes,  which  destroy  the  rats,  which  would  otherwise 
destroy  the  house.  Binondo,  the  new  city,  across  the  Pasig 
river  from  the  old  city,  is  the  business  quarter.  Along  the  river 
bank  are  Chinese  bazaars,  commercial  warehouses,  and  hotels, 
while  scattered  up  and  down  the  river  are  the  dwellings  of  the 
natives.  The  city  stands  on  ground  but  one  foot  above  high 
water.  Of  the  250,000  inhabitants  50,000  are  Chinese  and 
5,000  Europeans.  The  old  walled  town,  or  city  proper,  is  about 
one  mile  square,  with  narrow  streets  and  low-built  heavily 
buttressed  houses,  with  cloth-covered  walls.  The  earthquakes 
and  typhoons  are  very  destructive.  Like  the  Chinese,  the 
Filipinos  become  reckless  when  death  is  certain;  it  is  not  the 
recklessness  of  courage  so  much  as  the  recklessness  of  despair. 
Throughout  the  Spanish  war  the  property  of  the  Manila  and 
Dogipan  railway  company,  owned  and  operated  by  Englishmen, 
was  not  molested  either  by  natives  or  Spaniards. 

Manila  is  connected  with  Hongkong  by  cable  and  four  lines 
of  steamers,  and  by  rail  with  Pangasinam,  the  port  of  entry 
for  the  rice-growing  district  123  miles  distant.  The  natives 
have  many  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Mexicans,  being  natural 
musicians,  and  skilful  artisans,  particularly  in  the  manufacture 
of  coarse  pottery,  musical  instruments,  furniture  and  carriages, 
hats  mats  and  baskets;  they  are  expert  at  cotton  and  silk 
weaving,  leather  tanning  and  boat-building.  North  of  Manila 


400  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

bay,  in  Bulaean  and  Panipanga,  are  some  princely  sugar  haci- 
endas, and  here  and  all  about  the  city  land  is  held  at  a  high 
price. 

Iloilo,  on  the  island  of  Panay,  with  a  population  of  10,000, 
ranks  next  to  Manila  among  the  cities  of  the  Philippines. 
Here  under  the  Spaniards  resided  a  governor,  a  captain  of  the 
port,  and  other  officials.  The  town  takes  pride  in  a  cathedral, 
casa  real,  seminary,  courthouse,  and  mercantile  and  manufact- 
uring establishments. 

Only  one-fifteenth  of  the  archipelago  is  under  cultivation, 
the  system  of  agriculture  being  that  of  small  holdings.  Eice 
is  still  the  staple  food,  though  the  growth  of  maize  is  increasing. 
The  abaca,  or  Manila  hemp,  which  remains  the  chief  export, 
is  the  fibre  of  a  fruitless  banana,  or  a  species  of  the  banana  pro- 
ducing small  worthless  fruit,  and  requiring  for  its  growth 
peculiar  conditions  of  soil  and  climate.  During  the  decade 
from  1880  to  1890,  the  export  of  hemp  increased  $5,000,000, 
while  the  export  of  sugar  decreased  $2,000,000,  the  latter  due 
to  injury  to  crop  by  locusts,  which  damaged  also  indigo  and 
coffee. 

Capital  and  principal  town  in  Mindanao,  second  island  in 
size,  is  Samboanga,  with  a  good  harbor,  fort  cathedral  and 
hospital,  and  7,000  not  too  intelligent  people.  Before  the  war 
the  town  had  fortnightly  steamboat  service  with  Manila.  There 
is  another  town  on  the  island,  which  has  also  two  rivers  and 
some  lakes,  and  whose  agricultural  specialties  are  cinnamon, 
nutmeg,  pepper,  and  timber.  On  Basilian  island  is  the  town 
of  Isabel,  6,000  inhabitants,  and  a  good  harbor,  with  Spanish 
fort,  naval  station,  and  arsenal.  Large  sums  of  money  have 
been  spent  in  these  islands  for  defences  which  are  now  useless. 

Panay  is  a  fertile  island,  well  watered  by  mountain  streams, 
growing  rice,  sugar,  coffee,  cotton,  tobacco,  pepper,  and  cacao, 
and  supporting  a  Bisayan  population  of  900,000,  a  few  Ne- 
gritos inhabiting  the  mountains.  It  has  74  villages  and  three 
large  towns,  Iloilo,  Buenavista,  and  Kapis,  the  first  a  free  port 
under  the  Spanish.  Among  the  richest  of  the  archipelago  are 
the  Visayas  islands,  whence  a  large  part  of  the  business  ema- 
nates. 

The  best  coal  yet  found  is  in  Batan,  a  small  island  east  of 
Luzon.  In  Mindoro  are  coal  deposits,  and  in  the  small  adja- 
cent isle  of  Semarara.  Like  Mexico,  the  entire  surface  of  the 


PHILIPPINE    ARCHIPELAGO  401 

archipelago  seeins  impregnated  with  gold  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent.  It  is  for  the  most  part  detrital,  and  is  found  in  paying 
quantities  in  and  along  water  courses,  as  in  placer  deposits 
elsewhere.  The  natives  work  in  the  placers  with  cocoanut 
pans.  Mindanao  has  some  elevated  auriferous  gravel-beds,  well 
situated  for  hydraulic  mining.  Quartz  gold  is  found  in  abun- 
dance in  the  provinces  of  Camarines  and  on  the  island  of 
Panaon.  Quartz  veins  in  granite  are  found  at  Paracale.  North- 
ern Luzon  and  Mindanao  have  extensive  copper  beds;  also 
the  provinces  of  Lepanto;  and  Cebu  has  extensive  lead  deposits. 
There  is  an  abundance  of  iron  ore  on  half  a  dozen  islands. 
The  Sulu  archipelago  has  pearls.  Leyte  has  coal  and  oil; 
Biliram,  sulphur;  Samar,  coal  and  gold;  Eomblon,  marble; 
Masbete,  coal  and  copper;  Marindugue,  lead  and  silver;  and 
Cataanduanes,  Sibuyan,  Bohol,  and  Panaoan,  gold.  Volcanoes 
play  havoc  hereabout,  the  people  working  contentedly  under 
the  shadow  of  a  smoking  cone  with  as  little  concern  as  China- 
men work  in  a  powder  mill.  Mayon  is  as  tricky  as  dynamite, 
and  while  it  slays  its  thousands,  familiarity  with  its  precincts 
breeds  indifference.  Though  208  miles  distant  from  Manila, 
this  mighty  belcher  has  covered  the  streets  of  the  capital  two 
feet  deep  with  ashes,  and  buried  towns  to  the  depth  of  100 
feet  in  lava.  The  eruption  of  1814  caused  the  loss  of  12,000 
lives.  In  the  north  is  the  Taal  crater,  which  darkened  the 
sky  for  eight  days  in  1754,  and  cost  the  lives  of  40,000  persons. 

Sulu  island  has  100,000  people  in  44  villages,  among  which 
are  four  races,  if  local  intermixture  can  form  a  race.  The 
Suhis  are  a  fierce  piratical  people,  followers  of  Mohammed,  and 
not  always  easy  to  manage,  even  by  their  sultan. 

Before  we  could  reach  the  Caroline  islands  in  our  work  of 
relieving  Spain  of  her  colonies,  a  revolt  occurred,  two  native 
kings  uniting  against  the  Spaniards.  The  Spaniards  concen- 
trated their  forces  at  Ponape;  they  had  but  200  poorly  armed 
men,  who  were  unable  to  withstand  a  severe  attack. 

Possession  was  taken  of  the  Ladrone  islands  for  the  United 
States  by  the  steamer  Charleston,  Captain  Glass,  on  the  21st 
of  June,  1898,  no  resistance  being  offered  by  the  Spaniards. 
The  governor-general,  his  staff,  and  the  entire  military  force 
were  taken  prisoners,  and  the  American  flag  raised  over  the 
ruins  of  the  Spanish  fort  of  Santa  Cruz,  in  the  harbor  of  San 
Luis  d'Apra.  The  surprise  of  the  Spaniards  may  be  imagined 


402  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

in  finding  themselves  so  suddenly  subjugated,  as  they  had 
heard  nothing  of  the  fall  of  Manila  or  of  war  with  the  United 
States.  In  taking  for  a  coaling-station  the  only  good  harbor 
on  the  island  of  Guam,  which  was  also  the  capital  of  the  group, 
the  harbor  facilities  for  the  other  islands  would  be  so  small 
that  they  would  scarcely  be  worth  having.  So  it  was  argued 
at  the  time  of  this  brilliant  conquest. 

The  Ladrones,  the  Carolines,  and  the  Gilbert  and  Marshall 
groups  comprise  Micronesia.  The  Ladrones,  where  the  natives 
are  nearly  extinct,  was  formerly  a  penal  settlement  of  Spain. 
The  Caroline  group  of  five  high  islands,  of  basaltic  formation, 
are  of  rare  beauty.  The  natives  as  first  seen  were  naked,  fierce, 
and  elaborately  tattooed.  The  Marshall  and  Gilbert  groups  are 
coral  islands,  six  or  eight  feet  above  the  sea,  growing  bread- 
fruit, the  cocoa  palm,  and  pandananas,  or  screw  pine.  The 
question  of  territory  rights,  long  disputed  between  European 
powers,  was  settled  in  1885  by  the  pope,  who  gave  the  Caro- 
lines to  Spain,  the  Marshall  islands  to  Germany,  leaving  for 
England  the  Gilbert  group. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

RACE  PROBLEMS 

As  to  the  origin  of  humanity,  in  its  various  phases,  we 
know  as  much  as  did  the  babel-builders,  and  no  more.  All 
mankind  are  so  nearly  alike  anatomically  as  to  suggest  a  sin- 
gle first  pair  for  the  race,  while  from  such  differences  as  form, 
features,  color  of  skin,  and  mode  of  speech,  some  have  argued 
autochthonic  origin.  But  while  the  wisest  are  still  in  the 
dark  as  to  some  things,  regarding  other  points  affecting  the 
human  race  the  most  ordinary  observer  may  speak  with  con- 
fidence. 

Thus  we  see  in  hot  lands  people  dark  of  skin,  with  never  a 
tropical  white  man,  and  never  a  black  man  indigenous  to 
high  latitudes.  Native  to  the  temperate  zone  is  the  dusky 
skin, — at  least  we  find  it  there, — as  the  coppery  hued  Ameri- 
can and  the  yellow  Asiatic.  On  islands  and  mainland  are 
many  apparent  intermixtures  of  black  white  and  yellow. 
As  to  the  white  man  proper,  Mount  Caucasus  is  not  between 
cancer  and  Capricorn,  and  is  well  removed  from  both  the  arc- 
tic and  antarctic. 

Other  things  we  may  know,  namely,  that  while  for  a  time 
and  with  care  the  several  races  may  live  anywhere  on  the 
globe,  unless  it  be  at  or  near  the  poles,  the  white  man  cannot 
live  and  labor  permanently  in  the  tropics,  though  the  black 
man  seems  to  adapt  himself  well  enough  to  temperate  climes. 
Indeed,  of  all  the  tropical  races  the  African  negro  is  the  best 
all-round  working  man  for  hot  and  temperate  climates,  in  so 
far  as  of  his  own  accord  he  will  work  at  all,  while  of  the  in- 
digenes of  the  temperate  zone  the  Chinaman  is  the  best 
worker  for  both  hot  and  cold  climates.  It  is  a  fact  learned 
by  observation,  rather  than  a  question  for  discussion,  that  the 
Caucasian  cannot  live  and  labor  and  healthily  and  properly 
develop  in  tropical  countries.  True,  he  may  dilute  his  blood 

403 


404  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

with  that  of  a  tropical  native,  become  acclimated,  and  so  get 
along  in  a  mongrel  fashion,  but  in  that  case  he  is  no  longer  a 
Caucasian. 

Among  the  non-workers  of  the  world  are  the  American 
Indians  and  the  tropical  islanders.  Anglo-saxons  came 
over  and  worked  the  lands  now  covered  by  the  United  States: 
Spaniards  and  Portuguese  intermixed  and  bred  hybrids  to  fill 
the  place  of  working-men  in  Latin  America;  while  the  Scotch 
fur-traders  kept  the  woods  of  Canada  a  game  preserve  as  long 
as  possible,  with  the  lords  aboriginal  as  hunters,  protecting 
them  from  the  influences  of  civilization  for  that  purpose. 
When  colonization  came,  the  half-breed  offspring  of  the  fur- 
traders  made  tolerably  good  agriculturalists.  Negro,  Indian, 
and  Spaniard  perform  some  tropical  labor,  as  in  Cuba  and 
other  isles  of  the  Antilles;  negro,  Malay,  and  Spanish  mixed 
may  be  called  Filipino,  while  for  the  Hawaiian  islander,  and 
others  of  that  caste,  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  together  do 
their  work. 

Another  self-evident  fact  is  that  certain  races  under  cer- 
tain conditions  tend  to  disappear,  while  other  races  which 
have  thus  far  come  to  the  knowledge  of  history,  have  elected 
to  remain.  Thus  the  American  Indian  and  the  tropical  isl- 
ander, the  Australian  bushman  and  the  South  African  sav- 
age, the  non-workers  of  the  world,  inevitably  fade  away  in  the 
presence  of  European  civilization.  Inoculate  these  savages 
with  foreign  blood,  and  some  of  the  progeny  may  be  pre- 
served, as  in  Mexico  and  Canada,  but  most  of  it  were  better 
not  preserved,  as  in  Hawaii  for  example.  The  African 
seems  suited  with  American  life,  but  by  himself  in  his  tropi- 
cal island  republic  he  is  a  failure;  where  lie  fattens  in  the 
house  of  the  southern  planter,  an  Apache  would  die  of  heart 
or  lung  disease. 

It  is  equally  plain  to  be  seen  that  some  races  tend  to  im- 
prove in  culture  and  refinement  while  others  deteriorate; 
some  are  becoming  more  and  more  civilized,  while  others  are 
either  yet  savages  or  are  stricken  in  their  development  by 
dry-rot.  Implanted  in  the  Nahuas  and  Mayas  of  Mexico  and 
Central  America,  and  in  the  Peruvians  of  South  America, 
was  the  well-defined  germ  of  an  indigenous  civilization, 
which  if  it  had  not  been  crushed  by  the  conquerors  would 
have  developed  into  a  culture  no  less  original  than  wonder- 


RACE    PROBLEMS  405 

ful.  No  where  else  in  America,  and  in  few  other  places  in 
the  world,  was  there  any  such  manifestation. 

Some  of  the  questions  which  may  be  asked,  and  not  all  of 
them  difficult  to  answer,  are:  Is  there  any  one  race,  or 
stock,  of  humanity  of  proved  and  pronounced  superiority  to 
all  others?  If  so  is  it  well,  or  otherwise,  to  cultivate  and 
breed  from  that  stock  for  the  world's  coming  humanity,  so 
far  as  practicable,  in  preference  to  the  propagation  of  poorer 
stock?  The  fittest  survive,  we  are  told;  if  this  be  true,  to 
what  extent,  if  any,  is  it  right  and  proper  for  us  to  aid  in  the 
carrying  out  of  this  law  of  God  and  Nature? 

In  how  far  is  it  wise  and  legitimate  to  encourage  the  fittest 
and  discourage  the  unfittest  to  survive?  Cannot  enough  of 
the  best  humanity  be  bred  to  allow  us  to  dispense  altogether 
with  the  inferior  article?  Is  it  not  cheaper  to  grow  all  good 
men  than  to  try  to  make  over  the  bad?  Our  pilgrim  fathers 
acted  upon  this  principle,  they  and  their  successors;  the  Ind- 
ian is  all  bad,  they  said,  except  when  he  is  dead;  and  so  they 
killed  him.  We  of  to-day  have  undertaken  a  more  difficult 
task,  which  is  to  whitewash  Africans,  Asiatics,  and  mongrel 
breeds  with  European  civilization.  Some  of  the  white  may 
adhere,  but  the  duskiness  is  always  sure  to  show  through. 
"  It  is  the  duty  of  civilized  nations  to  take  charge  of  the  bar- 
barians and  give  them  a  white  man's  government ",  said  Cecil 
Rhodes.  "  The  United  States  is  one  of  the  great  powers, 
and  cannot  escape  this  duty."  Why  is  it  our  duty,  can  Mr 
Rhodes  tell,  when  we  can  be  better  employed  in  making  bet- 
ter men? 

We  cannot  convey  our  higher  ideals  of  life  to  people  of 
lower  development,  without  having  with  us  the  power  to  en- 
force; for  it  is  the  nature  alike  of  all,  whether  of  high  or  low 
degree,  without  the  influence  of  environment  to  sink  to 
lower  levels,  and  with  or  without  the  aid  of  environment,  it  is 
better  always  to  grow  plants  and  animals  -from  the  best  stock. 

There  are  few  who  question  the  innate  superiority  of  white 
men  over  those  of  the  various  shades  which  distinguish  all 
others  from  the  Aryan  race.  History  clearly  shows  that  from 
the  first  the  white  man  has  dominated  the  world,  and  at  no 
period  more  completely  than  now.  It  makes  no  difference 
liberating  the  enslaved  or  educating  the  ignorant;  it  makes 
no  difference  the  examples  of  men  or  nations  that  have,  risen 


406  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

and  displayed  marked  abilities;  the  one  fact  proves  all,  that 
there  is  not  now  and  never  has  been  on  the  earth  a  people  civ- 
ilized, or  half  or  quarter  civilized,  with  a  very  dark  skin  that 
has  risen  to  strength  or  prominence  in  the  direction  of  mili- 
tary prestige  or  good  government.  Though  the  earlier  civ- 
ilizations sprang  up  where  the  conditions  of  life  were  most 
favorable,  that  is  to  say  in  tropical  regions,  whose  inhabi- 
tants are  usually  but  not  always  dark  of  skin,  they  were  in  the 
old  world  of  Aryan  stock,  and  white.  The  others,  like  the 
Arabians,  Egyptians,  and  Carthaginians,  did  not  remain. 
The  Aztecs  and  Peruvians  of  the  American  aboriginal  civili- 
zations, and  occupying  the  tropical  table  lands  of  North  and 
South  America,  were  for  the  most  part  white,  or  nearly  so, — 
white,  while  the  savage  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding  low- 
lands, their  subjects  and  slaves,  were  dark,  some  of  them 
quite  black.  Not  that  the  quality  of  mind  and  morals  is 
necessarily  governed  by  the  color  of  the  skin;  but  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  white  peoples  always  have  been  and  are  now 
the  rulers  and  regulators  of  the  world. 

In  every  aboriginal  nation  there  is  present  either  native 
endurance,  or  the  elements  of  decay  in  the  presence  of  supe- 
rior civilization.  The  Aztecs  and  Peruvians,  themselves  civ- 
ilized, many  of  them  as  much  so  as  their  conquerors,  declined 
to  disappear  before  the  Spaniards,  and  the  greatest  modern 
as  well  as  ancient  statesmen  and  poets  of  Mexico  and  South 
America  have  been  native  Indians.  In  the  north,  being  of 
a  hardy  race,  and  held  aloof  from  contact  with  civilization 
that  they  might  the  better  hunt,  many  of  the  natives  remain 
as  Indians  or  half  breeds.  The  aborigines  of  the  United 
States  had  the  grace  to  die;  those  of  them  who  were  not  killed 
by  emigrants  and  gold-hunters,  and  so  saved  themselves  ex- 
termination in  other  forms.  The  300,000  estimated  Ha- 
waiian islanders  seen  by  Cook  diminished  under  kind  treat- 
ment to  30,000,  and  their  final  extinction  is  only  a  question 
of  time.  On  the  other  hand,  European  civilization  trans- 
planted to  America  in  the  form  of  Anglo-saxon  stock,  not 
only  lives  and  thrives,  but  exercises  a  retroactive  influence  on 
the  mother  country.  The  seeds  of  intellectual  and  political 
liberty  from  the  New  World,  scattered  abroad  about  Europe, 
are  beginning  to  take  root  in  places  and  bear  fruit.  And 
finally,  in  literature,  art,  manufactures,  and  commerce  the 


RACE    PROBLEMS  407 

United  States  is  fast  outstripping  the  foremost  nations  of 
Europe. 

For  a  people  of  low  social  development  to  occupy  places 
favored  by  situation  soil  and  climate  is  obviously  a  disadvan- 
tage to  neighboring  nations.  On  all  the  shores  of  the  Pacific 
are  conditions  favorable  to  development  equal  or  superior  to 
the  lands  surrounding  the  Atlantic.  Now,  if  in  the  place  of 
a  long  line  of  Asiatics  on  one  side,  and  a  long  line  of  Spanish 
Americans  on  the  other,  we  had  all  around  the  Pacific  Euro- 
pean and  American  Anglo-saxons,  what  would  not  the  differ- 
ence be  worth  to  the  Anglo-saxons  at  present  in  North  Amer- 
ica and  Australia? 

In  Portuguese  and  Spanish  America  the  races  of  low  degree 
left  to  self-government  present  a  dismal  spectacle.  Take  for 
example  Brazil,  larger  in  area  than  the  United  States,  and  on 
the  whole  with  richer  lands.  Occupied  by  Europeans  a  cen- 
tury before  Massachusetts  was  settled,  it  has  now  a  mixed 
population  of  Indians  and  negroes,  with  a  sprinkling  of  Eu- 
ropeans, in  all  some  fifteen  millions.  And  this  after  an  abor- 
tive effort  to  colonize  this  part  of  the  tropics  with  some  of  the 
fairly  good  material  of  Europe,  Swiss  German  Austrian  and 
Italian  immigrants. 

The  spirit  of  industrialism  is  overspreading  the  world  to 
such  an  extent  that  nations  of  the  higher  development  will 
not  acknowledge  the  rights  of  any  people  to  possess  desirable 
regions  of  the  earth  without  making  a  proper  use  of  them. 

Whenever  general  development  comes,  in  the  various  coun- 
tries round  the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  it  will  not  be  by  the 
energy  or  intelligence  or  organizing  ability  of  Asiatics  or 
Spanish  Americans.  The  Malay  and  Latin  races  have  been 
on  the  ground  long  enough  already  to  have  accomplished 
something  if  they  had  any  such  intentions.  Neither  will  it 
be  by  the  Russians,  though  the  Muscovite  is  making  rapid 
railway  strides  through  Siberia  to  the  Pacific,  and  is  getting 
a  good  hold  for  the  strangulation  of  China.  Germany  may 
accomplish  something,  but  Germany  will  lack  unity  of  pur- 
pose, and  never  acquire  a  dominating  influence  on  these 
shores.  It  is  by  the  Anglo-saxons,  men  originally  from  Eng- 
land but  now  residents  of  the  United  States,  of  Canada  and 
Australia,  who  are  destined  to  dominate  in  these  waters,  po- 
litically and  industrially.  In  many  of  their  war  practices 
14 


408  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

the  Spaniards  still  retain  barbarous  ideas.  Given  to  lying 
and  trickery  as  a  profession,  their  lack  of  honor  is  all  the 
more  conspicuous  by  reason  of  their  protestations  of  honor. 
No  faith  is  to  be  put  in  any  promise;  prisoners  of  war  may  be 
shot  or  hanged  or  tortured  according  to  the  pleasure  of  the 
commanding  officer.  Honor  is  satisfied  by  fighting  and  be- 
ing beaten,  and  suicide  is  the  remedy  for  sorrow.  Juan 
Lazaga,  captain  of  the  Almirante  Oquendo,  killed  himself 
after  the  battle  of  Santiago.  How  did  that  help  matters? 
And  should  we  regard  it  as  a  brave  or  a  cowardly  act? 

The  Anglo-saxon  race  dominates  the  Pacific  as  it  domi- 
nates the  world.  A  decade  ago  Dilke  remarked,  in  his  Prob- 
lems of  Greater  Britain,  "  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  the  im- 
perial position  of  our  race  as  compared  with  the  situation  of 
the  other  peoples,  and,  although  the  official  positions  of  the 
British  empire  and  of  the  United  States  may  be  so  distinct  as 
to  be  sometimes  antagonistic,  the  peoples  themselves  are,  not 
only  in  race  and  language  but  in  laws  and  religion  and  in 
many  matters  of  feeling,  essentially  one."  If  this  was  the 
case  then,  how  much  more  so  is  it  now. 

The  political  mind  of  Europe  seeks  occupation  for  itself, 
and  exercise  for  that  vast  body  of  civil  and  military  men  who 
keep  in  motion  the  machinery  necessary  to  the  existence  of 
the  several  governments.  The  eighteenth  century  saw  much 
fighting  with  meagre  results,  so  far  as  western  Europe  was 
concerned.  The  nineteenth  century  saw  a  large  part  of  the 
world  partitioned  among  these  powers.  Most  important  of 
all  to  the  governed  are  the  elementary  functions  of  govern- 
ment, the  protection  of  life  and  property,  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  which  England  with  all  her  colonial  and  imperial 
enterprises  has  been  more  successful  than  any  other  nation. 
It  is  an  instinct  in  the  Anglo-saxon  race,  in  which  the  people 
of  the  United  States  participate,  the  maintenance  of  order 
and  law,  and  the  administering  of  fair  play  and  justice  to  the 
governed.  If  properly  administered  by  a  wise  and  powerful 
home  government,  colonies  are  no  more  a  source  of  weakness 
than  any  other  form  of  wealth  or  extension.  If  England  can 
manage  an  empire  of  400,000,000  people,  scattered  the  world 
over,  with  200,000  men,  surely  the  United  States  should  find 
no  difficulty  in  governing  100,000,000  with  100,000  men. 

Conspicuous  in  the  Anglo-saxon  race  are  individual  truth- 


RACE    PKOBLEMS  409 

fulness  and  nonesty;  energy,  good  sense,  courage,  and  national 
integrity,  with  an  impatience  for  insincerity  and  trickery  in 
diplomacy,  particularly  that  kind  of  jockeying  which  conti- 
nental statesmanship  has  so  long  considered  essential.  As  a 
race  study,  let  a  fair  comparison  be  made  with  other  nations. 
Take  for  example  the  French.  No  better  illustration  can  be 
found  of  the  quality  of  manhood  of  the  Latin  race  acting  under 
pressure  of  danger,  than  in  the  destruction  of  the  French  steam- 
ship La  Bourgogne  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  July,  1898, 
en  route  from  New  York  for  Havre.  In  a  dense  fog,  she  was 
struck  by  the  British  steamer  Cromartyshire,  and  sank  in  half 
an  hour.  If  the  officers  and  crew  had  done  their  duty,  most 
of  the  passengers  would  have  been  saved.  The  steerage  was 
filled  with  Italians,  who  with  the  French  seamen  fought  for 
places  in  the  boats,  and  on  rafts,  with  knives  and  pistols,  kill- 
ing or  clubbing  off  all  who  opposed  them,  or  were  in  their 
way,  men  women  and  children  alike.  That  only  one  woman 
was  saved  is  but  another  exemplification  of  the  despicable  man- 
hood of  the  Latin  race  similar  to  that  displayed  at  the  con- 
flagration at  the  city  bazaar  in  Paris.  Will  any  one  for  a 
moment  maintain  that  it  would  be  possible  for  an  American 
or  British  crew,  or  band  of  emigrants,  to  have  so  behaved  under 
like  circumstances? 

Compare  this  conduct  with  that  of  the  passengers  and  crew 
of  the  California  steamer  Central  America,  which  foundered 
on  the  way  from  Aspinwall  to  New  York  in  1853.  There  were 
1,500  passengers  on  board,  and  the  ship  was  one  of  those  old 
worn  out  vessels  condemned  as  unseaworthy,  but  set  up  under 
another  name  by  those  merchant  princes  of  New  York,  along 
in  the  fifties,  to  lure  Californians  to  their  death.  As  usual  on 
those  steamers,  there  were  not  boats  enough  to  carry  one-fifth 
of  the  passengers.  These  passengers  as  I  have  said  were  all 
home-returning  Californians,  a  name  synonymous  in  those  days 
with  everything  noble  and  chivalrous.  These  men  thus  doomed 
to  a  watery  grave  stood  quietly  by  while  the  boats  were  being 
made  ready;  then  they  fell  back  to  form  a  passage-way  for 
women  and  children,  who  were  carefully  helped  into  the  boats, 
the  men  standing  silently  on  the  deck,  and  going  down  to  their 
death  without  a  murmur.  In  justice  to  the  officers  of  the 
Bourgogne  let  it  be  said  that  they  went  down  with  their  ship, 
but  whether  from  choice  or  necessity  has  never  been  told. 


410  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Their  men  however,  and  the  Italian  emigrants  behaved  like 
demons. 

The  20,000,000  population  of  Mexico  is  made  up  of  mixed 
Indian  European  and  African  races,  the  differences  between 
the  wild  tribes  of  the  borders  and  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
table-land  being  as  marked  as  that  between  the  Aztecs  and 
Mayas  and  the  Europeans.  As  a  rule  the  natives,  though 
treated  with  severity  by  the  Spaniards  whenever  disobedience 
to  church  or  state  was  manifest,  were  not  swept  from  the  land 
by  slaughter  and  disease  as  in  the  United  States,  but  were 
saved  to  serve  as  laborers,  as  Spaniards  do  not  like  labor,  while 
Americans  prefer  to  do  their  own  work  rather  than  try  to  get 
it  out  of  an  Indian.  As  many  of  these  Mexican  aborigines  were 
in  no  wise  inferior,  either  in  physical  or  mental  characteristics, 
to  the  Spaniards,  intermarriage  was  common,  and  endless  race 
intermixtures  followed,  chief  among  which  is  that  of  the  Indian 
and  white  man,  called  mestizo,  and  comprising  one-fourth  of 
the  population.  There  are  yet  remaining  many  natives  of  pure 
blood,  particularly  in  the  back  districts,  but  not  so  many  ne- 
groes or  Spaniards.  The  latter  became  acclimated  in  Mexico, 
because  the  capital  of  the  republic,  and  the  best  cities,  and  the 
best  people  are  on  the  high  healthy  table-land,  which  in  cli- 
mate is  indeed  not  tropical.  In  the  Philippines,  where  the  in- 
terior is  yet  wild  forest,  and  the  cities  are  on  the  shore,  Euro- 
peans, Spaniards  even,  do  not  as  a  rule  reside  there  for  more 
than  five  years. 

More  than  sixty  years  ago,  while  yet  the  dreamy  slumber 
of  primeval  ages  rested  on  the  waters  and  shores  of  the  Pacific, 
Richard  H.  Dana  writes,  "  Nothing  but  the  character  of  the 
people  prevents  Monterey  from  becoming  a  great  town.  The 
soil  is  as  rich  as  man  could  wish;  climate  as  good  as  any  in 
the  world;  water  abundant,  and  situation  extremely  beautiful." 
So  might  we  say  of  the  whole  region  round  the  Pacific,  nothing 
but  the  character  of  the  people  prevents  it  from  being  the 
world's  centre  of  industry  and  empire. 

California,  during  the  last  half  century,  has  given  employ- 
ment to  from  50,000  to  150,000  Chinese,  in  cigar  and  other 
manufactures,  and  as  household  servants,  launderers,  vegetable 
vendors,  miners,  fruit-pickers,  and  shop-keepers,  at  from  $18 
to  $30  a  month  wages.  As  a  rule  they  earned  the  money,  some 
of  which  went  to  China,  but  always  an  equivalent  for  it  was 
left  in  this  country.  In  San  Francisco's  Chinatown  may  be 


RACE    PROBLEMS  411 

seen  along  wide  and  well  paved  streets,  mercantile  houses, 
shops,  manufactories,  restaurants,  theatres,  joss-houses,  all  for 
the  most  part  clean  and  respectable.  Again,  and  elsewhere, 
in  bad-smelling  alleys  may  be  seen  opium  and  gambling  dens, 
places  of  prostitution,  meat  and  other  shops,  all  as  vile  and 
filthy  as  can  be  found  in  Paris,  London,  or  New  York.  It  is 
customary  for  Chinese  emigrating  in  any  numbers  to  form 
themselves  into  one  or  more  associations  for  mutual  help  com- 
fort and  protection.  Membership  is  voluntary,  subscriptions 
to  benevolent  objects  optional,  and  officers  elective.  They  have 
a  hall  for  meetings,  and  a  temple  for  worship.  They  usually 
settle  their  own  differences  and  take  care  of  their  own  sick. 
Since  early  times  there  have  been  in  San  Francisco  six  of  such 
associations,  known  as  the  Six  Companies,  and  often  uniting 
their  strength  and  influence  in  some  common  cause.  As  a  rule 
the  Chinese  men  in  California  are  free  and  independent,  while 
the  Chinese  women  are  mainly  prostitutes  and  slaves. 

There  must  be  some  strong  incentive  for  the  Chinese  people 
to  leave  their  homes  to  dwell  in  distant  lands,  when  they  have 
to  encounter  so  many  obstacles,  and  their  dead  body  to  be 
returned  to  rest  in  peace  and  be  received  into  the  eternity  of 
the  just.  Why?  For  centuries  they  have  been  on  the  move, 
crowding  the  islands  around  them,  then  the  neighboring  con- 
tinents, and  finally  all  the  world  within  their  reach,  and  almost 
everywhere  unwelcome.  Is  it  altogether  to  get  money,  that 
they  brave  the  dangers  of  the  deep,  suffer  hardships  and  un- 
dergo insults?  No,  it  is  partly  because  of  dissatisfaction  at 
home.  They  have  no  great  love  of  country  while  living;  it 
is  only  when  dead  that  the  soil  becomes  precious,  and  because 
their  ancestors  lie  buried  there. 

That  the  coolies  are  for  the  most  part  ill-treated,  cheated, 
and  in  every  way  imposed  upon,  has  little  to  do  with  it.  Thou- 
sands die  unpaid,  the  contractors  pocketing  the 'proceeds  of 
their  labor.  The  better  class  become  independent  as  cooks  and 
artisans,  and  do  not  care  for  their  native  land  except  to  lay 
their  bones  in  it  for  the  more  complete  mollification  of  the 
malicious  gods.  Like  most  of  those  who  leave  their  homes, 
in  the  main  they  would  be  better  off  in  their  own  country  if 
they  knew  how  properly  to  live  and  behave. 

Why  do  the  Irish  leave  the  emerald  isle  they  love  so  well? 
Not  for  gain  entirely,  but  partly  because  of  innate  restlessness, 


412  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

a  dissatisfaction  with  present  conditions,  and  chronic  pugna- 
ciousness;  they  delight  in  fighting  fate  and  ruling  a  republic. 
The  Irishman  feels  that  he  is  the  equal  of  any  man  and  the 
superior  of  most  men,  as  good  as  the  best,  or  a  little  better; 
the  Chinaman  is  thankful  to  find  a  place  on  earth  where  he 
may  be  considered  a  man  at  all. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  China  and  the  Chinese  government, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  more  people  inhabiting  a  large  area 
have  been  there  held  together  for  a  longer  time  than  any  where 
else.  And  never  was  colonization  carried  so  far  as  by  the  Chi- 
nese of  the  present  day.  They  have  a  colony  in  nearly  every 
city  in  Christendom  and  heathendom.  In  every  commonwealth 
they  set  up  their  imperium  in  imperio,  with  all  their  idolatries 
and  immoralities,  slavery,  polygamy,  joss-houses,  and  theatres; 
opium,  gambling,  and  prostitution  dens.  True,  all  nations 
have  the  same  or  parallel  vices  in  equal  degree,  but  they  are 
different;  we  love  our  own  abominations,  and  have  no  respect 
for  those  of  others. 

Their  laws  are  perfect,  fit  for  the  regulation  of  heaven,  they 
say;  and  their  government  patriarchal,  but  they  have  no  re- 
spect for  woman;  their  gods  are  not  lovable  beings,  but  rather 
demons  to  be  feared.  Their  politics,  religion,  and  rules  of 
life  are  all  too  abstract  to  be  worshipful.  They  are  deceitful 
and  cunning,  nowhere  more  so  than  in  cheating  their  gods 
and  the  government,  by  spending  their  lives  abroad  for  their 
temporal  welfare,  and  burying  their  bodies  at  home  for  the 
better  repose  of  their  souls. 

Human  nature  nowhere  is  made  up  of  more  opposite  charac- 
teristics than  among  these  Asiatics.  Though  by  instinct  and 
rearing  they  are  timid,  and  up  to  a  certain  point  cowardly, 
pressed  beyond  that  point  they  are  reckless  of  danger  and 
indifferent  to  life.  So  with  regard  to  money;  naturally  avari- 
cious and  penurious,  certain  barriers  broken  and  no  people  are 
more  venturesome  or  lavish  of  expenditure.  Hence  we  must 
conclude  that  they  are  really  no  more  avaricious  or  cowardly 
than  others. 

If  history  may  be  believed, — and  I  know  not  why  Chinese 
history  should  not  be  accredited  as  fully  as  that  of  Homer, 
or  of  the  Egyptians,  or  of  the  Jews — the  colonies  were  estab- 
lished at  Borneo  and  elsewhere  under  the  Chow  dynasty  in 
1100  B  C,  and  subsequently.  The  Portuguese,  and  indeed  the 


RACE    PROBLEMS  413 

first  Europeans  at  Malacca,  Penang,  Singapore,  and  all  the 
important  islands  of  eastern  Asia  and  Oceanica,  found  there 
before  them  Chinese  colonies. 

The  modern  coolie  traffic  in  origin  and  operation  is  not  un- 
like the  old  African  slave  trade,  beginning  in  lies  and  deceit, 
followed  by  kidnapping,  man-stealing,  and  man-buying,  and 
ending  in  enforced  labor,  abject  misery,  degradation,  and  death. 
Often  they  are  driven  from  their  country  by  the  impositions 
of  rulers,  the  tyranny  of  the  police,  low  wages,  excessive  taxes, 
poor  returns  of  land,  or  by  such  poverty  that  they  have  to  sell 
a  wife  or  child  for  the  means  with  which  to  leave  the  country. 
Ill  treated  and  imposed  upon  as  they  are  abroad,  it  is  often 
worse  for  them  at  home,  so  that  those  who  return  from  Cali- 
fornia to  China  to  look  after  their  wives  children  and  parents, 
always  come  back  to  California  if  they  can.  After  all  Cali- 
fornia is  the  Chinaman's  paradise.  He  is  not.  badly  treated 
there  now;  he  gets  good  wages,  and  through  his  lawyer  can 
have  his  rights  respected. 

For  seven  dollars  the  emigrating  Chinaman  can  obtain  in- 
surance of  return  of  body  and  burial  in  China.  The  first  band 
of  Chinese  that  entered  the  California  gold-diggings  created  a 
sensation.  With  hoots  and  wild  halloo,  half  in  fun  and  half 
in  earnest,  the  miners  formed  a  ring  around  them,  and  exe- 
cuted a  war-dance,  at  once  declamatory  and  admonitory.  There- 
after they  were  kicked,  cuffed,  or  let  alone  by  legislature  and 
people  according  to  time  and  temper.  Droves  of  Chinamen 
were  brought  over  to  work  on  the  Central  Pacific  railroad,  and 
did  well. 

When  contract  laborers  are  wanted,  circulars  are  issued  in 
certain  districts  of  China,  the  following  specimens  being  among 
the  least  untruthful,  the  first  issued  in  1862,  the  second  in 
1868,  and  the  third  in  1870. 

!<  To  the  countrymen  of  Ah  Lung.  Laborers  are  wanted 
in  the  land  of  California.  Great  works  to  be  done  there,  good 
houses,  plenty  of  food.  You  will  get  $20  a  month  and  good 
treatment.  Passage  money  required  $45.  I  will  lend  the 
money  on  good  security,  but  I  cannot  take  your  wife  or  child 
in  pay.  Come  to  Hongkong,  and  I  will  care  for  you  until  the 
ship  sails.  The  ship  is  good.  Ah  Lung." 

"  Great  pay;  such  as  would  be  rich  and  favored  by  Shan; 
come  to  me  for  ticket  to  America.  Shoo  Ming." 


414  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

"  China  colony  for  Mexico.  All  get  rich  there,  have  land. 
Make  first  year  $400;  next  year  $1,000.  Have  quick  more 
money  than  mandarins.  Plenty  good  rice  and  vegetables 
cheap.  Nice  ship,  no  sickness,  plenty  of  room.  Clang  Wo." 

Seeing  which  alluring  offers,  the  staid  celestial  straightway 
consults  his  gods,  mortgages  his  wife,  and  sets  out  to  seek  his 
fortune,  with  little  money  but  with  half  a  dozen  protecting 
deities  in  his  pockets. 

The  word  coolie  is  properly  applied  to  an  Asiatic  laborer 
not  of  the  artisan  class,  but  restricted  in  its  use  more  particu- 
larly to  the  field  hands  of  India  and  China.  The  system  which 
collects  these  laborers,  conveys  them  to  distant  lands,  and  sells 
their  services,  is  too  often  but  slavery  under  another  name. 
At  the  same  time,  fairly  administered  it  may  be  of  great  benefit 
to  all  concerned.  Tropical  plantations  cannot  be  worked  by 
white  men,  and  free  negroes  will  not  work  there;  hence  the 
coolie  system,  which  supplies  laborers  to  industries  that  other- 
wise could  not  be  carried  on.  Cruelties  have  been  practised 
in  this  traffic,  resulting  in  the  death  of  many,  whether  or  not 
in  the  interests  of  mankind  let  the  world  judge.  Yet  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  honest  dealing  in  contract  labor.  The  Chinese 
coolie  at  the  same  wage  is  cheaper  and  better  than  natives  of 
India.  The  people  of  north  China  are  stronger  and  more  en- 
during than  those  of  the  south.  Bice  and  vegetables  are  the 
ordinary  food  of  the  laborer  at  home,  with  sometimes  a  little 
fish  and  meat.  Wages  are  from  ten  cents  a  day  up,  nine  hours 
being  regulation  time.  They  are  good  workers,  and  display 
much  native  aptness  and  skill.  They  are  best  regulated  in 
guilds;  they  understand  the  theory  and  practice  of  strikes  to 
perfection.  At  home,  two-thirds  of  the  people  are  engaged 
in  agriculture  and  fisheries;  the  remainder  of  the  industrial 
class  are  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  artisans.  So  over- 
populated  are  certain  sections  that  some  of  the  inhabitants 
must  move  away  or  live  in  boats.  They  go  to  the  outlying  re- 
gions, to  Mongolia  and  Manchuria,  as  well  as  to  distant  parts, 
America  and  Australia,  also  to  the  islands  of  the  tropics,  as  the 
Philippines  and  Hawaii. 

Illogical  as  the  attitude  may  be,  we  keep  on  battering  at 
the  Chinese  walls  of  exclusiveness  while  closing  our  gates  to 
the  admission  of  the  subjects  of  China.  The  tyranny  of  labor, 
or  rather  of  laziness,  is  nowhere  more  manifest  than  in  the 


RACE    PROBLEMS  415 

expulsion  of  the  Chinese,  who  will  do  more  and  better  work 
at  the  wages  they  receive  than  any  other  people  in  the  world. 

China  is  derided  because  her  laborers  work  so  well  and  so 
cheaply,  and  because  of  the  exclusiveness  of  which  America  is 
beginning  to  pride  herself.  The  Chinese  were  driven  from  the 
United  States  at  the  instigation  of  Irish  voters,  who  claimed 
the  right  to  all  the  dirty  work  in  America,  and  which  they 
were  anxious  to  do  only  at  exorbitant  wages.  The  Americans 
by  the  introduction  of  machinery  into  China  are  doing  the 
Chinese  laborers  ten  times  the  injury  that  the  Chinese  ever 
did  the  American  laborers,  and  scarcely  a  word  of  complaint. 
The  placing  of  American  steamers  on  the  Yangtse  river  threw 
out  of  employment  100,000  junk  men,  while  the  introduction 
of  several  hundred  foreigners  into  civil  service  wrought  in- 
finitely greater  hardship  to  the  employes  of  government  there, 
than  ever  could  possibly  come  from  Chinese  interference  in 
American  politics. 

"It  was  not  the  act  of  exclusion"  said  Li  Hung  Chang, 
"  so  much  as  the  manner  of  it,  that  we  object  to.  Its  passage, 
in  violation  of  previous  stipulations  was  bad  faith,  and  none  the 
less  exasperating  because  of  the  new  treaty  then  under  con- 
sideration, in  which  China  took  the  initiative  by  agreeing  to 
stop  emigration.  The  oppressions  to  which  our  laborers  are 
subjected  come  from  the  government,  and  a  government  which 
enacts  iniquity  is  no  government." 

It  was  a  somewhat  pathetic  plea  Admiral  Dewey  was  forced 
to  make  for  his  good  Chinamen,  when  he  asked  the  United 
States  to  reward  them  with  citizenship  for  fighting  our  battles. 
The  nation  needed  their  services  when  he  filled  vacancies  in 
his  crews  with  them  in  Chinese  waters.  They  served  faithfully, 
were  efficient  and  obedient  in  service,  active  and  brave  in  battle, 
and  freely  risked  their  lives  in  our  cause.  To  turn  them  from 
our  shores  to  suffer  decapitation  at  home  for  enlisting  in  for- 
eign service,  seemed  to  the  hero  of  Manila  unjust.  "  They  will 
hardly  obtain  citizenship  on  the  Pacific  coast,"  said  a  Boston 
journalist.  "  They  can  have  it,  however,  if  they  will  come 
to  Massachusetts;  we  have  had  Chinese  voting  here  for  many 
years,  and  have  never  been  at  all  disturbed  at  its  exercise." 

It  is  better  in  every  way  to  be  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
Chinese,  as  well  as  with  all  other  peoples;  .it  is  difficult  to 
seek  their  alliance  or  enjoy  liberal  or  profitable  industrial  rela- 


416  THE   HEW   PACIFIC 

tions  with*  them  with  free  access  to  their  country  while  ex- 
cluding them  from  ours.  Or,  if  it  be  best  to  exclude  labor, 
why  discriminate  against  the  Chinese? 

The  question  of  Chinese  expulsion  in  the  British  colonies 
becomes  somewhat  involved  in  consideration  of  the  fact  that 
certain  Chinese  are  British  subjects,  as  in  Hongkong  colony, 
and  those  settled  in  the  Straits,  who  for  several  generations 
have  been  British  subjects  by  descent.  In  the  Malay  peninsula, 
in  the  Dutch  Indies,  and  in  Borneo,  the  Chinese  are  among 
the  most  intelligent  and  public-spirited  citizens. 

Whatever  the  teachings  of  economics,  it  does  not  appear 
the  best  way  to  employ  inferior  labor  at  a  higher  wage  in 
order  to  produce  the  best  article  to  be  sold  for  the  least  money. 
"  I  see  no  reason/'  says  Dilke,  "  to  protest  against  the  desire 
of  the  Americans  and  of  the  Australian  and  Canadian  colonists 
to  exclude  the  poorest  form  of  foreign  labour,  provided  that  it 
be  done  by  general  laws."  In  other  words,  the  absurdity  of 
Chinese  expulsion  presents  itself  in  full  force  only  when  less 
desirable  people  are  admitted  to  the  highest  privileges. 

Following  the  examples  of  California  and  Australia,  the 
legislature  of  British  Columbia  passed  resolutions  asking  the 
Canadian  parliament  to  prohibit  the  immigration  of  Chinese, 
as  was  the  law  in  the  United  States.  This  Canada  refused 
to  do,  but  established  a  license  fee  upon  payment  of  which  the 
Chinese  might  enter  the  dominion.  "  Impartial  testimony 
from  Canada  "  says  Dilke,  "  shows  that  the  Chinese  are  not 
only  a  hard-working,  but  a  quiet  and  an  honest  people." 

From  the  white  laborer's  point  of  view  the  presence  of  the 
Asiatic  laborer  is  altogether  undesirable.  The  Chinaman  is 
a  good  workman,  persevering,  uncomplaining,  quick  to  learn, 
skilful  as  an  artisan,  and  with  few  requirements.  Hence  he 
sadly  interferes  with  those  who  want  higher  pay  for  less  work. 
His  standard  of  comfort  is  low.  The  white  workman  wants 
a  home,  family,  high  wages  and  short  hours,  that  time  may  be 
had  for  enjoyment.  The  Chinese  are  in  many  respects  a  supe- 
rior people,  but  they  harbor  old  and  deep  rooted  traditions  not 
beneficial  to  European  progress.  Manufactures  must  suffer, 
consumers  must  pay,  but  the  white  laborer  and  artisan  are 
undoubtedly  benefited. 

Indeed,  the  same  line  of  argument  would  have  held  good 
a  hundred  years  ago  in  regard  to  the  expulsion  of  those  who 


RACE    PROBLEMS  417 

would  now  expel  others.  And  in  truth  the  proper  time  for 
expulsion  in  the  United  States  would  have  been  when  the 
rabble  from  Europe  first  began  to  come  in.  Had  this  been 
done,  and  with  low  Africans  and  Asiatics  low  Europeans  had 
been  denied  admittance,  the  great  American  republic  would 
now  be  composed  of  quite  a  different  class  of  people.  In  British 
tropical  colonies  the  Chinese  are  highly  esteemed.  The  British 
North  Borneo  company  assure  us  that  "  the  Chinese  make 
excellent  citizens,  always  at  work."  They  work  on  the  pepper 
plantations  of  Singapore,  notwithstanding  that  the  tigers  man- 
age to  catch  and  eat  them  at  the  rate  of  one  a  day.  The  mer- 
chants in  the  city  dress  like  the  coolies,  in  loose  white  smock 
and  colored  trousers,  but  the  cloth  is  of  finer  quality.  The 
soil  of  Borneo  and  adjacent  isles  is  very  rich,  producing  a 
redundant  vegetation,  conspicuous  among  which  and  most 
highly  prized  is  the  sago  tree.  Here  live  the  elephant  and  the 
orang-outang,  with  all  their  usual  tropical  associates.  The 
royal  tiger  and  panther  terrorize  Java,  and  the  one-horned 
rhinoceros  is  occasionally  seen. 

Australia  officially  declares  the  Chinese  "  an  alien  race,  in- 
capable of  assimilation  in  the  body  politic,  strangers  to  our 
civilization,  out  of  sympathy  with  our  aspirations,  and  unfitted 
for  our  free  institutions."  Would  it  not  be  better  for  us  if  all 
this  were  true  in  regard  to  the  refuse  population  of  Europe, 
and  the  African  slaves,  which  we  have  absorbed  into  the  life 
blood  of  our  nation?  Says  Dilke  in  Problems  of  Greater  Britain, 
"  In  most  of  the  colonies  the  anti-Chinese*  legislation  applies 
only  to  the  Chinese  race,  and  cases  have  occurred  where  steam- 
ers have  reached  colonial  ports  with  Japanese  crews  and  Chinese 
cooks  and  stewards,  and  sometimes  Chinese  quarter-masters, 
and  the  Japanese  have  been  able  to  take  their  run  ashore 
while  the  Chinese  were  penned  up  on  board.  Some  years  ago 
there  was  a  seaman's  strike  in  the  Australian  colonies,  directed 
against  the  employment  of  Chinese  by  the  steamship  lines. 
The  Australian  Steam  Navigation  company  argued  with  the 
representatives  of  white  labor  that,  as  the  company  was  extend- 
ing its  trade  into  tropical  climates,  it  must  at  least  have  Asiatic 
labor  in  the  engine-rooms;  and  the  men  ultimately  accepted 
an  agreement  that  the  Chinese  should  only  be  employed  in 
subordinate  and  accessory  positions,  such  as  those  of  stokers, 
while  the  total  number  employed  in  the  company's  fleet  was 


418  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

to  be  reduced  from  180  to  130  in  three  months.  The  Austral- 
ian Navigation  company  has  recently  sold  the  boats  with  regard 
to  which  the  strike  occurred  to  a  new  firm,  the  Australasia 
United  Steam  Navigation  company,  which  undertakes  still 
more  tropical  trade,  and  which  seems  likely  also  to  have  diffi- 
culties at  the  port  of  Sydney.  The  seamen's  unions  of  Victoria 
and  New  South  Wales  have  compelled  the  ships  trading  to 
China  and  back  to  forego  trade  between  intercolonial  ports 
when  they  are  manned  by  Chinese  crews,  and  they  have  at- 
tacked the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  company  for  the  employ- 
ment of  lascars;  and  the  employment  of  lascars  by  the  British 
India  company  has  been  partly  stopped  by  the  boycotting  of 
their  ships.  Australians  are  tempted  by  the  difficulties  of  their 
local  labour  problem  to  forget  the  need  in  which  the  empire 
may  one  day  stand  of  the  Chinese  alliance  in  eastern  Asia, 
and  we  in  the  old  country,  who  see,  perhaps  more  clearly  than 
they  can  be  expected  to  perceive,  that  the  future  mastery  of 
the  world  lies  between  the  British,  the  Eussian,  and  the  Chinese 
races,  may  be  pardoned  for  attaching  more  importance  than  do 
colonists  to  good  relations  between  Great  Britain  and  the  Chi- 
nese empire.  China,  which  fought  France  not  long  ago  upon 
a  point  of  honour,  and  which  obtained  in  our  time  from  Russia, 
without  fighting,  a  province  which  Russia  had  long  adminis- 
tered, is  a  power  well  able  to  hold  her  own;  and  if  we  bear 
in  mind  the  incredible  numbers  of  her  population,  and  the 
ability  of  her  rulers,  we  can  feel  little  doubt  that  the  value 
of  her  alliance  with*  ourselves  in  the  future  must  increase  each 
day.  An  alliance  in  Asia  between  China  and  Great  Britain 
would  form  a  true  league  of  peace." 

The  laws  or  treaties  of  England  regarding  Chinese  immi- 
gration, or  any  other  unpopular  issue  have  no  more  weight  in 
the  colonies  than  federal  regulations  in  the  states.  Said  the 
colonial  prime  minister,  Sir  Henry  Parkes,  in  the  assembly 
of  New  South  Wales,  when  accused  of  disobeying  the  law, 
"  I  care  nothing  about  your  cobweb  of  technical  law;  I  am 
obeying  a  law  far  superior  to  any  law  which  issued  these  per- 
mits, namely  the  law  of  the  preservation  of  society  of  New 
South  Wales."  Mr  Gillies,  prime  minister  of  Victoria,  in- 
formed Lord  Salisbury  that  the  colonies  would  not  be  bound 
by  treaties  made  by  the  home  government  respecting  Chinese 
immigration  to  the  colonies  in  which  the  colonies  had  no 
voice. 


RACE    PROBLEMS  419 

For  all  that,  too  many  foreigners  of  any  kind  are  no  longer 
specially  desired  in  the  United  States,  whether  as  scavengers, 
policemen,  or  titled  heiress-hunters.  As  for  the  Chinese, 
they  are  as  good  as  any,  and  better  than  most.  They  have, 
like  the  Irish,  strong  staying  qualities.  Were  they  permit- 
ted to  fasten  themselves  on  us  in  unlimited  numbers,  the 
character  of  the  community  would  become  changed,  just  as  it 
has  been  and  is  being  changed  by  the  Europeans.  In  British 
Columbia,  white  miners  and  artisans  utilize  the  labor  of  the 
Asiatic  to  a  greater  extent  than  in  the  United  States,  where 
they  are  driven  from  mines  and  workshops. 

That  the  Chinese  if  freely  admitted  will  possess  and  denat- 
uralize America,  we  need  no  more  fear  than  that  the  African, 
or  Irish,  or  Italians,  or  Mexican,  if  freely  admitted  will  pos- 
sess and  denaturalize  America.  We  are  a  hundred  millions, 
almost,  of  good  strong  Americans;  if  all  China  should  come 
here,  leaving  not  a  man  at  home,  they  would  be  only  four  to 
our  one,  and  we  could  take  care  of  ourselves. 

There  are  several  places  round  the  Pacific  where  the  Mon- 
golian may  yet  find  refuge,  to  his  own  advantage  and  to  the 
advantage  of  the  land  he  inhabits,  or  such  of  them  as  he  may 
be  able  to  inhabit.  Besides  the  Asiatic  and  South  sea  shores 
and  isles,  in  which  no  white  man  can  live  and  labor,  there  are 
the  malarious  coasts  of  equatorial  America,  and  even  the  in- 
terior lands,  of  which  the  Spanish-Americans  have  made  so 
poor  a  use,  would  be  none  the  worse  by  having  some  thor- 
ough work  done  on  them. 

Enterprising  Koreans  have  a  fancy  for  Siberia,  quite  large 
settlements  having  been  made  in  Russian  Manchuria,  where 
they  excel  both  the  Chinese  and  Russians  in  business  and  in- 
dustrial pursuits.  Those  who  lived  there  before  1884  have 
rights  as  Russian  subjects.  But  now  the  Russians  require  all 
the  good  land  near  the  railway  for  their  own  people,  and  the 
Koreans  are  denied  further  ingress.  The  Korean  colonists 
are  lightly  taxed,  and  have  the  regulation  of  their  own  affairs 
to  a  great  extent. 

Formosa  was  peopled  aboriginally  by  Malays  and  Mongoli- 
ans,— Chinese  from  the  adjacent  continent,  and  Malays  from 
southern  parts.  The  Chinese  are  dominant,  and  the  popula- 
tion is  of  all  ethnological  grades,  from  half  to  wholly  savage. 
The  continental  Chinese  call  all  the  islanders  barbarians, 


420  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

whether  savage  or  civilized.  The  Japanese,  who  are  now 
masters,  are  filling  the  island  with  their  own  prolific  hordes, 
to  the  evident  discomfort  of  the  aboriginal  Chinese.  In  the 
mountainous  regions  of  Formosa  are  aboriginal  tribes  that 
have  never  been  subdued  by  the  Chinese  from  the  mainland, 
and  who  are  as  wild  now  as  they  were  a  thousand  years  ago. 
Chihoans,  raw  barbarians,  the  Chinese  call  them,  while  of  the 
conquered  tribes  the  most  important  are  the  Pepohoans,  who 
cultivate  rice  extensively  on  the  Kaptsulan  plains  which  lie 
along  the  eastern  seaboard.  Here  were  once  thirty-six  vil- 
lages of  simple  thriftless  folk,  until  the  aggressive  Chinese 
forced  them  to  reclaim  new  rice  fields  from  the  more  distant 
jungles  of  the  foothills. 

Siberia  in  time  will  receive  large  accessions  to  her  popula- 
tion from  China,  particularly  when  systems  of  railways  are 
more  fully  developed  in  both  countries.  The  result  of  thus 
transferring  to  virgin  regions  the  hardy  toilers  from  well- 
worn  lands  would  be  difficult  to  foresee. 

Paul  Leroy-Beaulieu,  writing  for  France,  remarks,  "  At 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  Russia  will  have 
120,000,000  of  prolific  inhabitants  occupying  enormous 
spaces;  60,000,000  of  Germans,  supported  by  30,000,000  of 
Austrians,  will  dominate  central  Europe;  120,000,000  of 
Anglo-saxons  will  occupy  the  finest  countries  in  the  world, 
and  will  all  but  impose  on  civilized  man  their  tongue,  which 
is  already  dominant  at  this  day  in  territories  inhabited  by 
more  than  300,000,000  of  men.  Place  by  these  great  peoples 
the  Chinese  empire,  which  by  that  time  without  doubt  will 
recover  a  new  life.  By  the  side  of  these  giants  what  will  be 
France?  " 

Says  Charles  Carleton  Coffin  in  Our  New  Way  round  the 
World,  "  The  Celt  just  over  from  Ireland,  with  the  ink 
scarcely  dry  upon  his  naturalization  papers,  proposes  to  shut 
out  the  more  industrious  Asiatic  from  all  chance  of  employ- 
ment in  this  country;  and  partisan  politicians,  devoid  of  all 
sense  of  honor  and  justice,  and  comprehending  nothing  of 
the  true  principles  of  democratic  economy,  pass  laws  which 
are  a  disgrace  to  our  country.  The  people  of  California  and 
Oregon  may  hang  their  heads  in  shame  when  they  contrast 
their  treatment  of  the  Chinese  with  that  which  Americans 
receive  in  China.  Their  persecution  of  the  Asiatics  demands 


RACE    PROBLEMS  421 

the  reprobation  of  the  nation.  That  the  government  and 
the  people  of  China  are  moving  slowly  along  the  path  of  prog- 
ress cannot  be  doubted,  yet  it  will  take  a  long  while  to  over- 
come the  inertia  of  the  mighty  mass.  It  would  not  be 
strange  if  the  reactionary  party  should  yet  succeed  in  ob- 
structing the  onward  movement.  There  are  men  in  China, 
as  there  are  in  California,  who  would  like  to  see  all  foreigners 
swept  into  the  sea.  People  who  have  been  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment by  the  introduction  of  steamboats  are  restless;  man- 
darins who  see  their  power  departing  are  ready  to  stir  up 
discontent.  There  cannot  be  a  social  revolution  without  a  dis- 
turbance of  elements,  and  it  will  be  contrary  to  the  experi- 
ence of  all  history  if  China  is  an  exception."  Yet  California 
is  not  the  only  place  in  the  United  States  where  the  Chinese 
are  badly  treated.  They  are  nowhere  specially  desired.  As 
for  race  specialties,  New  York  nourishes  the  Irish,  while 
Boston  is  too  much  in  love  with  the  black  man  to  have  much 
consideration  for  the  yellow  one  just  at  present. 

The  Russians  in  Siberia  at  first  employed  convict  labor 
from  the  penal  settlement  of  Saghalien,  but  this  being  unsat- 
isfactory, from  8,000  to  10,000  Chinese  were  brought  in  the 
spring  from  the  province  of  Shantung  to  carry  out  the  sum- 
mer labor  contracts,  returning  to  China  in  the  winter,  each 
with  thirty  or  forty  dollars  in  his  pocket. 

As  an  economic  factor,  the  Chinaman  is  an  ideal  human 
machine,  the  best  intelligent  and  industrial  animal  that  can 
be  produced  at  the  price.  There  are  men  physically  stronger, 
there  are  men  intellectually  superior,  there  are  men  morally 
purer,  but  there  are  no  men  with  body  mind  and  morals, 
united  with  aptness,  patience,  and  application,  who  are 
worth,  or  can  be  made  worth  as  much  to  civilization  accord- 
ing to  the  cost.  Call  him  animal,  vegetable,  or  mineral,  he 
comes  all  the  same,  and  proves  indeed  a  worthy  implement. 
What  is  his  cost?  To  his  country,  very  little;  to  the  for- 
eigner, nothing.  He  comes  ready  taught,  or  will  teach  him- 
self what  you  will,  and  work  for  the  common  laborer's  wage, 
or  less.  What  does  the  negro  cost?  He  formerly  cost  his 
master  $500  or  $1,000.  Four  million  of  them  cost  the  nation 
two  millions  of  lives,  three  thousand  millions  of  money,  and 
in  their  enfranchisement  deep  humiliation  to  every  true 
lover  of  his  country.  What  the  fifty  or  a  hundred  millions, 


422  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

the  natural  increase  of  these  now  six  or  seven  millions  in  a 
century  or  two,  will  cost,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine.  A  race 
war  has  already  set  in,  which  will  deluge  the  land  in  blood, 
and  may  in  time  destroy  the  nation. 

It  is  all  very  well,  this  imperialism  and  expansion,  becom- 
ing a  great  nation  and  taking  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  world, 
elevating  humanity  and  refining  culture,  but  would  it  not  be 
well  in  the  mean  time  to  have  a  regard  for  the  quality  of  stock 
from  which  we  are  looking  for  such  high  and  pure  republican- 
ism? Have  we  not  already  absorbed  enough  of  the  base 
blood  of  Europe  and  the  black  blood  of  Africa?  Now  we  are 
bringing  upon  ourselves  a  horde  of  that  hybrid  population 
found  in  all  the  old  Spanish  colonies,  made  up  of  endless  in- 
termixtures of  Indians  negroes  and  Spaniards,  together  with 
the  Kanakas  of  Hawaii,  and  the  Mongolians  of  the  Asiatic 
isles,  with  all  their  still  lower  and  more  degrading  race  inter- 
mixtures. 

The  natives  of  the  tropical  islands  were  in  their  aboriginal 
state  savages  of  the  lowest  species.  .They  went  naked,  or 
wore  next  to  nothing,  lived  in  huts  or  made  their  lair  like 
wild  beasts  in  the  jungle,  ate  berries  and  other  spontaneous 
fruits,  with  raw  fish  on  the  coast  and  small  game  and  vermin 
in  the  interior.  Where  they  came  from,  or  how  they  came  to 
be,  no  one  knows,  and  probably  no  one  ever  will  know,  though 
many  can  tell  what  they  think  about  it.  The  Hawaiians 
hold  traditions  that  they  came  up  from  the  south;  the  south 
people  wandered  over  from  the  continent;  the  autochthon 
theory  of  origin  is  not  current  among  them.  Then,  into  this 
original  mass,  whatever  may  have  been  original,  were  thrown 
other  original  masses,  Malays  from  Malaya,  or  Malacca;  Mon- 
gols from  Mongolia;  Chinese,  Japanese,  Australians,  and 
Africans,  resulting  in  endless  conglomeration.  Last  of  all 
came  the  Europeans,  only  to  make  matters  worse,  the  foreign 
blood  thus  injected  producing  a  yet  more  demoralized  hu- 
manity. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  and  one  well  worth  the  considera- 
tion of  those  who  think  it  better  to  lift  into  life  the  baser  ma- 
terial of  the  human  race  than  to  cultivate  and  bring  yet  fur- 
ther forward  the  more  advanced  of  mankind,  that  not  only 
savagism  and  all  inferior  races  fade  away  and  become  oblit- 
erated in  the  presence  of  superior  civilization,  but  the  inferior 


RACE    PROBLEMS  423 

races  cannot  even  put  on  the  garments  of  civilization  without 
becoming  infected  by  them;  that  is  to  say,  give  the  Asiatic, 
the  African,  the  native  American,  European  forms  of  govern- 
ment, of  industry,  education,  and  ethics,  and  he  will  decline 
rather  than  advance  under  the  infliction. 

During  the  three  centuries  following  the  discovery  of  the 
tropics,  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  later  Holland  France  and 
England,  entered  the  field  of  competitive  colonization  upon 
a  scale  which,  if  not  so  broad  as  that  of  a  later  day  in  India 
and  Africa,  was  fully  as  intense.  In  the  West  Indies  and 
South  America,  as  the  aboriginal  laborers  disappeared  under 
the  heavy  blows  of  the  European  task-master,  their  place  was 
supplied  by  the  more  hardy  African,  carried  thither  as  slaves, 
600,000  being  landed  by  the  English  in  Jamaica  alone. 
Upon  the  application  of  African  slave  labor,  the  rich  soil  of 
the  islands  under  a  hot  sun,  with  an  abundance  of  moisture, 
yielded  such  wealth  as  to  enrich  all  Europe.  Enormous  plan- 
tations conducted  upon  imperial  plans  attended  with  lordly 
sway  and  luxurious  living  sprang  up  on  every  side,  with  fine 
cities  at  the  principal  ports  and  appropriate  government 
everywhere.  Though  attended  by  barbarism  and  cruelty, 
the  application  of  African  slave  labor  to  the  cultivation  of 
tropical  islands  and  seaboards  was  unquestionably  successful 
in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view.  All  this  while  it  was  clearly 
evident  that  Europeans  could  not  live  and  labor  here  in  any 
considerable  numbers.  Some  of  the  descendants  of  the  early 
overseers  and  artisans  became  so  acclimated  that  malaria 
seemed  to  have  little  effect  upon  them,  and  the  half-breed 
population  which  sprang  up  took  the  place  to  some  extent  of 
the  former  native  inhabitants. 

With  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  rise  of  black  repub- 
lics, however,  all  this  was  changed.  The  Africans  increased 
in  numbers  faster  than  ever,  but  they  would  not  work.  Their 
poor  imitation  of  the  national  ideals  of  the  more  advanced 
governments  failed  to  help  them,  and  they  fell  into  a  state  of 
inanity  worse  than  any  barbarism,  without  aspirations  or  in- 
telligence, without  moral  force  or  energy.  These  efforts  to 
advance  races  of  low  development  by  surrounding  them  with 
the  paraphernalia  of  a  higher  culture  have  in  every  instance 
proved  unavailing,  and  shows  the  utter  uselessness  of  this 
form  of  altruism. 


424  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

It  is  a  full  century  since  the  colored  races  of  Hayti  threw 
off  the  rule  of  France,  and  from  that  time  to  this  the  country 
has  been  deteriorating.  Prosperity  went  out  with  foreign 
rule,  the  ethics  and  institutions  of  advanced  civilization  not 
being  applicable  to  inferior  races,  when  the  administration  of 
affairs  is  left  to  a  people  ignorant  and  naturally  lazy  and  in- 
competent. Left  to  himself  the  tropical  black  man  will  not 
work  so  long  as  food  can  be  obtained  and  the  swarming  in- 
crease fed  without  work.  As  compared  with  former  times 
the  island  appears  to  be  in  ruins;  where  once  was  busy  indus- 
try and  extensive  commerce,  are  now  dilapidated  plantations, 
abandoned  mines,  and  rotting  wharves  and  warehouses.  The 
chronic  condition  of  politics  and  society  is  revolution  and  re- 
volting crime,  with  rank  corruption  in  every  branch  of  the 
government.  Commerce  is  not  encouraged,  industry  is  de- 
clining, and  intercourse  with  white  men  and  foreigners  is  not 
desired.  A  century  of  trial  is  here  sufficient  to  show  that  the 
tropical  negro,  under  European  forms  of  government,  grad- 
ually declines,  until  a  state  of  things  is  reached  far  worse  than 
his  original  condition  in  Africa. 

Those  who  pretend  to  place  the  negro  on  an  equality  with 
the  white  man  are  not  consistent.  The  egregious  blunder  of 
giving  the  African  the  ballot  has  been  committed,  and  to  cover 
this  crime  of  the  commonwealth,  having  made  him  politically 
their  equal,  they  would  pretend  him  to  be  their  equal  intel- 
lectually and  socially  as  well.  But  like  all  fraud  and  hypoc- 
risy, good  people  cut  a  poor  figure  trying  to  practise  them. 
They  say  thus  and  so,  but  do  they  receive  the  black  man  as 
their  equal,  associating  and  intermarrying  with  him  as  with 
the  white  man?  If  so  their  taste  and  judgment  are  to  be  de- 
plored; if  not,  their  profession  is  a  false  one.  Whatever  the 
few  may  do,  carried  away  by  the  feeling  of  wrong  done  to  the 
liberated  slave,  or  by  some  other  equally  illogical  sentiment, 
the  facts  remain,  (1)  that  the  black  and  white  men  in  this  re- 
public are  in  name  politically  equal;  (2)  that  intellectually 
and  socially  they  are  not  and  never  can  become  so;  (3)  being 
ethnologically  and  fundamentally  different  in  race  they  never 
can  amalgamate;  (4)  as  they  can  never  unite  there  will  be  eter- 
nal antagonisms  and  race  wars;  and,  finally,  (5)  the  increase 
of  the  negro  being  twice  as  fast  as  that  of  the  white  man,  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time,  if  present  politics  continue,  when  the 


RACE    PROBLEMS  425 

black  man  will  overwhelm  the  white  man  by  reason  of  num- 
bers alone. 

This  is  the  possible  physical  outcome  of  our  present  negro 
worship;  the  mental  and  moral  degeneration  which  may  fol- 
low can  only  be  surmised  from  the  fact  that  the  constant 
tendency  of  Indians  and  negroes  is  to  revert  to  their  original 
condition.  That  the  non-advancing  Chinese  have  not  during 
these  several  thousand  years  retrograded,  shows  their  civili- 
zation, such  as  it  is,  to  have  been  genuine.  The  education  of 
the  Indian  is  not  civilization  but  whitewash.  The  emanci- 
pated slaves  of  the  United  States  have  not  and  never  can  have 
the  indigenous  development  essential  to  inherent  culture. 
In  the  West  Indies,  away  alike  from  the  savagisms  of  Africa 
and  the  bolstering  institutions  and  ballot  of  America,  the 
negro  does  not  advance,  but  retrogrades.  Hence  I  say  that 
the  greatest  danger  to  the  republic  is  not  from  without  but 
from  within.  The  sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the 
children,  first  the  sin  of  slavery,  and  then  the  sin  of  enfran- 
chisement. If  seven  millions  of  emancipated  slaves  are 
ready  to  rise  against  seventy  millions  of  white  men,  how  will 
it  be  when  there  are  seventy  millions  of  black  men  whom  the 
smell  of  blood  makes  brutal. 

There  is  a  colored  laborer  in  Washington  who  is  the  father 
of  sixteen  girls.  As  he  is  but  forty-four  years  old,  the  chances 
are  that  sixteen  will  soon  be  twenty.  If  each  of  these  girls 
should  have  twenty  children  within  thirty  years,  and  the  rest 
of  the  negro  race  in  the  United  States  should  increase  ac- 
cordingly, the  sons  of  the  carpet-baggers  will  regret  that  ever 
an  African  left  his  native  jungle. 

A  far  more  serious  question  than,  What  shall  be  done  with 
the  Philippines?  is,  What  shall  we  do  with  our  colored  popu- 
lation in  the  United  States?  that  is  to  say  if  we  do  not  indeed 
desire  to  see  another  black  republic  with  ourselves  as  a  sprink- 
ling of  white  trash.  The  black  population  is  increasing  rapid- 
ly, much  more  rapidly  than  the  white  population.  In  some 
of  the  southern  states  the  negroes  outnumber  the  whites  two 
to  one,  in  certain  sections  twenty  to  one,  and  throughout  the 
entire  south  the  increase  is  at  the  rate  of  three  black  to  one 
white. 

The  negroes  of  the  United  States  are  for  the  most  part 
occupants  of  warm  rural  districts,  well  fed  and  not  over- 


426  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

worked,  enjoying  all  the  blessings  of  civilization  and  good 
government,  with  little  or  no  trouble  or  cost  to  themselves, 
their  environment  thus  being  in  the  highest  degree  conducive 
to  rapid  increase  in  numbers.  But  there  is  little  denoting 
progress  or  thrift  in  their  surroundings.  One  may  travel  for 
days  through  the  south,  and  encounter  nothing  in  the  shape 
of  habitations  except  unpainted  huts  and  dilapidated  hamlets, 
round  which  swarm  pickaninnies  like  black  ants,  the  women 
sitting  on  the  doorstep  and  the  men  stretched  on  the  ground. 

Since  California  first  raised  the  cry,  The  Chinese  must  go! 
the  government  finally  endorsing  it,  the  people's  politicians 
have  given  the  ballot  to  four  millions  of  low,  ignorant,  eman- 
cipated slaves.  What  material  for  citizenship  for  the  world's 
foremost  republic!  How  proud  we  should  be  of  our  birth- 
right; how  admirable  to  be  the  peer  of  this  brutal  and  bare- 
footed black  man,  to  walk  beside  him  to  the  polls,  there  to 
discharge  the  most  solemn  obligation  imposed  upon  an  intelli- 
gent freeman! 

I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  place  myself  right  with  the  reader 
on  this  question.  While  deploring  sensational  fads  and  emo- 
tional philanthropy,  I  do  not  oppose  reform.  All  my  life  I 
have  been  a  friend  of  the  slave.  For  three  generations  before 
me,  my  ancestors,  the  Bancrofts  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
Howes  of  Vermont,  were  uncompromising  abolitionists;  and 
while  the  men  of  Boston  were  mobbing  Wendell  Phillips  and 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  for  uttering  abolition  sentiments,  I, 
at  the  age  of  twelve  years,  was  assisting  negroes,  at  night,  on 
their  way  through  Ohio,  from  Kentucky  and  slavery  to  Canada 
and  freedom.  But  for  all  that  I  think  too  much  of  my  coun- 
try, I  prize  too  highly  her  honored  institutions  to  wish  to 
see  them  administered  by  any  but  the  ablest  and  best  men. 

I  have  recently  returned  from  a  visit  to  the  southern  states, 
and  my  sympathy  with  the  Africans  there  was  never  so  great 
as  now.  They  are  an  alien  race,  with  no  hope  of  home  or 
country  in  the  land  of  their  birth.  The  citizenship  which  was 
given  them  by  northern  politicians  for  purposes  of  their  own, 
is  proving  a  curse.  With  the  ballot  was  bequeathed  to  them 
eternal  discontent.  With  the  change  came  first  egoism,  then 
envy,  and  therefore  hatred, — an  endless  longing  for  impossi- 
ble escape  from  a  black  skin,  emblem  of  inferiority  and  servi- 
tude. And  the  more  refined  they  become  in  manners  and 


RACE    PROBLEMS  427 

education,  the  more  they  will  feel  the  stigma  of  race  color 
which  they  must  forever  wear.  Will  this  state  of  things  never 
improve?  No.  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin?  It  was 
right  to  deliver  them  from  bondage;  it  was  not  right,  it  was 
not  conducive  to  their  happiness,  to  exalt  them  above  their 
natural  sphere.  To  be  kind  to  them,  to  give  them  the  pro- 
tection of  our  laws,  to  educate  and  elevate  them  if  you  will, 
was  our  duty,  but  to  make  them  our  law-makers,  our  masters, 
was  our  disgrace. 

We  have  seen  that  the  earliest  civilizations  ripened  in  semi- 
tropical  lands,  those  actually  within  the  tropics,  like  the  Mexi- 
can and  the  Peruvian,  occupying  high  interior  plateaus,  which 
lifted  them  out  of  the  influence  of  the  hot,  moist,  malarious 
lowlands  into  the  dry,  pure  air  of  moderate  temperature. 
Upon  no  tropical  island  has  ever  appeared  an  indigenous  civili- 
zation; all  are  and  have  been  occupied  by  the  lowest  races, 
savages  of  dusky  skin  and  beastly  aspect,  mostly  man-eaters, 
naked  and  houseless.  Even  where  Europeans  have  come  in 
and  mixed  their  blood  with  that  of  the  natives  in  greater  or 
less  degree,  the  product  has  still  been  half-savage,  with  never 
any  thing  better  than  a  half -savage  government.  Even  China, 
whose  aborigines  many  centuries  ago  were  either  obliterated  or 
absorbed  by  the  slightly  civilized  horde  which  swept  down 
upon  them  from  central  Asia,  left  to  herself  makes  little  if 
any  advance. 

All  men  are  created  free  and  equal,  said  the  sages  of  the 
past,  while  sages  of  the  present  affirm,  either  directly  or  by 
implication,  that  it  is  in  a  restricted  sense  only  that  the  rights 
of  the  weaker  races,  where  they  stand  in  the  way  of  progress, 
can  be  admitted.  All  men  are  created  free  and  equal,  says 
Mr  Jefferson.  Nature  says  No.  They  are  not  equal,  morally 
or  intellectually.  You  may  make  them  so  politically  if  you 
like,  but  you  cannot  make  them  so  potentially. 

The  time  has  passed  for  the  question  to  be  asked,  Shall 
white  men  take  the  tropics?  No  region  of  the  earth  will 
hereafter  long  remain  under  the  control  of  people  of  low 
ethnic  development,  and  without  the  development  of  indus- 
trialism. Not  only  is  civilization  becoming  more  and  more 
dependent  upon  the  tropics  for  an  important  part  of  its  food 
supply,  but  less  dependent  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  tropics 
even  for  labor  supply.  The  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the 


428  THE   NEW  PACIFIC 

islands  have  never  been  found  fit  for  labor;  Spaniards  and 
Spanish  intermixtures  are  still  worse;  the  early  planters  went 
to  Africa  and  the  later  ones  are  drawing  on  China  and  Japan 
for  a  supply  of  tropical  working  men.  If  therefore  the  pres- 
ent occupants  are  capable  neither  of  ruling  properly  nor  of 
working,  they  must  give  place  to  those  who  are,  for  the  world 
will  have  returns  from  these  lands  by  some  means.  Militarism, 
if  the  chronic  fighting  which  is  waged  generation  after  gen- 
eration by  the  half-savage  peoples  can  be  properly  so  called, 
cannot  always  prevail  or  take  the  place  of  ethical  and  indus- 
trial development,  now  so  conspicuous  in  the  onward  march  of 
civilization. 

Says  a  good  missionary  who  crossed  the  Pacific  and  wrote  a 
book,  "  It  is  our  duty  to  take  China  into  tutelage  to  strengthen 
her  by  insisting  upon  reforms."  A  truly  Christian  sentiment!- 
But  why  is  it;  what  makes  it  our  duty,  and  by  what  right  may 
we  insist  upon  our  ideas  of  reform  ?  And  suppose  China  in- 
sists upon  the  same  right  to  reform  us?  Our  talk  is  largely  a 
system  of  logic  to  be  finally  decided  by  gunboats. 

Each  nation  judges  the  others  from  its  own  point  of  view, 
and  makes  deductions  favorable  to  its  own  ways  and  its  own 
people.  It  is  as  if  the  whale  said  to  the  kangaroo,  "  Why  are 
you  a  kangaroo?  It  is  better  to  be  a  whale."  Hence  many 
infelicities.  Give  the  yellow  man  his  fling  at  the  white,  and 
what  would  he  say?  "  Oh!  you  queer  lot;  where  is  your 
loyalty  that  you  have  no  queue;  where  is  your  religion  that 
you  have  no  idols?  Blind  and  stupid,  you  know  nothing;  you 
know  not  what  you  are,  whence  you  came  or  whither  you  go. 
You  stand  agape  at  yourselves,  a  strange  creation  strangely 
environed.  You  know  not  even  your  gods,  but  worship  in  the 
dark;  it  is  better  to  be  a  pagan,  with  worshipful  dead  ancestors, 
who  were  once  here  in  the  flesh  and  can  protect  you  now  if 
they  will.  You  seem  burdened  with  a  self-consciousness  which 
you  cannot  escape,  and  so  fill  the  skies  with  images,  and  popu- 
late the  earth  with  beings  who  ripen  for  purposes  of  destruction. 
To  accomplish  the  aims  of  a  higher  humanity  you  employ 
the  attributes  of  the  brute  which  you  profess  to  abhor.  Your 
altruism  is  but  refined  animalism,  selfishness  underlying  all 
your  civilization,  with  unseemly  greed  as  the  keynote  of  your 
patriotism  and  your  progress.  While  making  for  liberty  you 
enslave  yourselves  by  conventualisms.  Half  your  life  is  spent 


RACE    PROBLEMS  429 

to  save,  half  to  destroy.  You  preach  peace  and  practise  war. 
You  profess  love  and  distribute  hate.  You  pretend  to  bene- 
factions, and  draw  the  recipients  of  your  bounty  into  a  bot- 
tomless pit.  You  come  to  us  with  your  missionaries  and  your 
opium,  and  your  great  warships,  and  enforce  on  us  your  unwel- 
come dogmas  and  drugs, — all  this  in  the  name  of  Christ  and 
humanity,  while  really  you  are  serving  Satan.  If  this  be  so, 
and  who  shall  gainsay  it,  what  right  have  you  to  go  prowling 
up  and  down  the  earth  to  make  room  for  the  white  race,  and 
rid  the  world  of  the  black  and  the  yellow?  " 

It  has  come  to  be  a  doctrine  of  orthodox  civilization  that  it 
is  right,  humane,  and  just  for  a  people  of  culture  and  nom- 
inally good  morals  to  take  in  hand  the  affairs  of  any  weaker 
people  of  low  intelligence  occupying  lands  which  the  stronger 
nation  would  like  to  possess;  that  in  law  and  equity  it  is  not 
proper  for  savage  or  half  savage  races  to  take  up  the  room  on 
this  earth  which  can  better  be  filled  by  better  people,  and 
that  therefore  any  nation  strong  enough  at  once  to  conquer 
the  weaker  nation,  and  at  the  same  time  hold  at  bay  or  mollify 
its  covetous  compeers,  may  honorably  seize  upon  and  oversee, 
manage,  manipulate,  and  govern  the  persons  property  and 
country  of  another  whenever  a  plausible  pretext  can  be  found 
for  so  doing.  As  it  is  the  destiny  of  all  savage  peoples  to  give 
place  to  civilization,  so  these  half  or  wholly  savage  islanders 
must  be  content  to  have  their  affairs  managed  by  those  stronger 
and  more  intelligent  than  they.  Thus  we  see  the  importance 
to  us  and  to  civilization  of  the  tropical  islands  which  have  re- 
cently fallen  to  us,  and  which  with  wise  management  and 
proper  care  will  become  useful  and  profitable.  We  can  learn 
both  from  England's  successes  and  Spain's  failures,  and  by 
emulating  the  one  and  avoiding  the  other,  administer  the  af- 
fairs of  the  islands  so  as  to  bring  blessings  to  them  and  to  us. 

Statesmen  in  Europe  and  America  may  be  very  sure  that 
the  tropics  never  will  be  permanently  peopled  by  white  men, 
and  legislate  accordingly.  The  experiment  has  been  tried, 
under  conditions  more  favorable  than  are  likely  to  be  repeated. 
It  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  natural  distribution.  Fishes  do 
not  inhabit  the  mountains,  nor  do  birds  live  in  the  sea.  The 
Eskimo  wraps  himself  in  furs,  and  with  a  supply  of  whale's 
blubber  stows  himself  away  in  his  underground  hut,  there  to 
lie  practically  dormant  through  the  long  dark  winter.  The 


430  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

tropical  man  eats  bananas  and  basks  naked  under  an  equatorial 
sun  until  his  skin  turns  black  or  yellow.  The  midway  white 
man  does  neither;  he  may  go  to  Alaska  for  sealskins  and  gold, 
and  to  Hawaii  and  the  Philippines  for  coffee  and  sugar;  but 
he  returns  and  dwells  forever  midway. 

Enterprise  has  become  amphibious,  its  emblem  a  beaver, 
with  its  underground  city  on  shore  and  a  dam  to  husband  its 
commerce,  which  at  the  same  time  obstructs  the  incoming  of 
the  unwelcome.  As  to  the  perils  of  expansion,  what  would 
America  be  could  it  not  expand?  The  wind  blowing  in  from 
the  open  west  has  been  the  vital  air  of  the  nation,  without 
which  we  should  ere  this  have  stifled,  or  burst  our  restraint 
and  throttled  Canada,  perhaps,  or  Mexico.  Henceforth  we 
need  not  take  into  our  land  the  scum  of  Europe,  but  may 
send  it  all  on  to  wash  itself  in  the  waters  of  the  great  ocean, 
and  sun  itself  dry  in  our  tropical  isles.  With  a  broad  sea  on 
either  side,  it  may  be  that  the  American  people  will  find 
breathing  space  for  a  few  more  centuries,  but  no  pent  up 
Utica  would  answer  the  purpose  throughout  all  time.  In- 
stead of  eighty  days  in  which  to  encompass  the  world,  we  take 
half  of  it  in  four  steps  without  soiling  our  seven-league  boots 
with  alien  earth.  The  actual  occupation  by  white  settlers  of 
the  lands  which  fall  to  us  as  the  result  of  the  war,  or  the  col- 
onization of  any  tropical  lands  as  our  own  land  was  colonized, 
was  never  seriously  contemplated.  Any  such  acquisitions 
must  be  managed  on  a  different  plan,  by  American  capital  and 
Asiatic  labor. 

We  may  give  the  ownership  but  not  the  occupation  of  the 
tropics  to  the  white  race.  The  interchange  of  products  be- 
tween one  part  and  another  part  of  the  temperate  zone  has 
hitherto  occupied  its  undue  share  of  attention  as  compared 
with  trade  between  temperate  and  tropical  lands.  For  the 
most  part  the  products  of  the  land  to  which  one  is  native, 
whether  temperate  or  tropical,  are  classed  among  necessities, 
while  those  which  come  from  abroad  are  called  luxuries.  Civ- 
ilization, inhabiting  exclusively  temperate  climes,  is  drawing 
constantly  more  and  more  on  tropical  products. 

Good  government,  after  the  best  forms  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica, need  never  be  expected  by  natives  of  dark  complexion  liv- 
ing in  communities  apart  from  the  dominating  influence  of 
people  of  higher  development.  The  Hawaiian  islanders  did 


RACE    PROBLEMS  431 

well  when  governing  themselves  according  to  their  own  cus- 
toms; but  when  the  missionaries  induced  them  to  adopt  part 
of  the  paraphernalia  of  civilization  without  any  hand  stronger 
than  their  own  to  guide  them,  they  found  themselves  sadly 
astray.  Dom  Pedro's  fatherly  despotism  was  better  for  the 
Brazilians  than  their  own  subsequent  independence.  Why 
Mexico  prospers  is  because  Diaz  is  more  autocrat  than  presi- 
dent; the  people  have  very  little  to  say  about  the  government. 
Why  the  Spanish  American  governments  in  Central  and  South 
America  are  so  like  the  governments  of  Liberia,  Hayti,  and 
Jamaica  is  because  they  are  so  much  nearer  akin  to  the  savage 
tribes  of  America  than  to  the  civilized  nations  of  Europe. 

The  two  distinct  races  of  the  Philippines,  the  negrito  and 
the  Malay,  both  show  traces  of  relationship,  one  with  Africans 
and  the  other  with  Asiatics.  Short,  dark,  with  woolly  hair  and 
a  negroid  type  of  face,  the  negritos  display  characteristics  of 
a  distinct  race,  and  one  which  has  long  occupied  these  isl- 
ands. To  this  region  nature  has  given  a  fertile  soil,  broad 
pasture  lands,  rich  mines  of  gold  and  silver,  and  vast  forests 
of  precious  woods,  all  interspersed  with  the  finest  of  fruits  as 
food  for  man.  But  here,  as  in  other  tropical  regions  where 
nature  is  at  her  best,  man  is  at  his  worst;  nor  are  base  inter- 
mixtures likely  to  improve  the  aboriginal  stock  of  the  7,500,- 
000  people  who  inhabit  the  islands,  less  than  half  of  whom 
are  the  short,  copper-colored,  industrious  Tagals  of  Luzon. 

In  the  Philippines  under  the  Spaniards  the  government  put 
to  forced  labor  all  who  failed  to  pay  their  taxes.  As  the  work 
of  the  government  was  performed  by  contract,  the  claim  of 
the  government  on  the  delinquent  tax-payer  was  sold  to  a 
contractor,  who  was  obliged  to  furnish  food  which  cost  four 
cents  a  day,  and  shelter  at  night,  which  cost  nothing.  Wages 
were  ten  cents  a  day,  and  the  original  tax  of  perhaps  $5  could 
with  costs  be  raised  to  $20,  to  which  might  easily  be  added 
throughout  the  year  such  small  sums  as  would  render  the 
slavery  perpetual.  The  priests  saw  the  profit  in  the  system, 
and  made  applications  for  forced  labor,  which  they  applied  to 
their  own  work,  or  to  contracts  which  they  obtained.  It  was 
this  infamous  system  of  enslavement  in  condemnation  of  which 
Jose  Rizal  wrote  a  pamphlet,  and  for  which  he  was  shot  in 
the  public  square,  the  part  against  the  government  being  pro- 
nounced treason  and  that  against  the  church  blasphemy. 


432  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

The  laborers  on  the  sugar  plantations  of  Cuba  are  much  in 
the  position  of  tropical  laborers  elsewhere;  where  they  are 
kept  systematically  and  perpetually  in  debt,  their  condition  is 
but  little  better  than  absolute  slavery, — the  old  system  of 
repartimientos,  or  the  serfdom  of  feudalism.  In  the  central 
provinces  there  are  two  white  Cubans  to  one  black  one;  toward 
the  east  the  races  are  nearly  equal.  The  lighter-colored  Cubans 
are  largely  of  Spanish  blood;  the  forebears  of  the  blacks  were 
from  Africa;  the  present  generation  are  like  the  blacks  of 
Hayti  and  Jamaica.  The  Spaniards  of  Cuba  are  not  like  the 
Spaniards  of  the  Peninsula,  neither  are  the  Africans  of  Cuba 
like  the  Africans  of  Africa.  They  are  not  only  Americanized, 
but  made  tropical  as  well.  They  are  largely  animal  here,  and 
with  but  little  energy.  The  native  population  of  Porto  Rico 
is  quite  different  from  that  of  the  Philippines,  being  more 
docile,  and  less  disorderly;  some  of  them  are  property  holders; 
all  of  them  are  somewhat  timid,  and  hence  require  a  rule  less 
arbitrary  than  fiercer  natures  demand. 

So  long  as  a  people  are  unfit  for  self-government,  like  the 
Filipinos  for  example,  it  is  no  kindness  to  give  it  to  them. 
What  they  want  is  protection  and  guidance  while  being  taught 
how  to  live,  and  work,  and  deal  one  with  another.  If  it  be 
not  right  for  them  to  pay  for  this  guardianship  and  education 
in  the  form  of  taxation,  then  let  them  go  for  the  present  un- 
taxed.  In  common  with  the  Spaniard,  the  American  Indian, 
and  the  native  African,  both  the  Hawaiian  and  Filipino  abhor 
labor;  hence  Chinese  and  Japanese  have  been  permitted  to 
come  in  and  do  their  work  for  them. 

The  native  Australasian  is  more  like  the  African  negro  than 
the  Polynesian  Malay,  though  not  quite  so  black  as  the  for- 
mer, nor  with  his  tightly  curled  hair.  Though  all  are  ap- 
parently one  people,  those  of  the  tropical  northeast  are  su- 
perior to  those  of  other  parts.  Yet  all  are  savages,  pure  and 
simple,  but  little  above  the  brute,  and  without  one  custom  or 
characteristic  pointing  toward  progress.  They  do  not  even 
know  the  bow  and  arrow,  yet  they  handle  the  spear  and  stone 
hatchet  with  skill,  and  make  bark  canoes;  but  the  triumph 
of  their  genius  is  the  boomerang.  Cannibalism  is  with  them 
a  religious  rite  rather  than  a  food  feast.  In  the  south-western 
isles  are  two  quite  distinctly  marked  races — the  black  Papuan, 
skin  sooty,  not  polished  like  that  of  the  African,  lips  promi- 


RACE    PROBLEMS  433 

ment;  the  brown  Malayan,  short  in  stature,  nose  and  eyes 
small,  mouth  large,  hair  lank.  The  mestizoes  of  Peru  are  a 
mixture  of  aboriginal  Peruvians  and  Spaniards;  the  mestizoes 
of  the  Philippine  islands  are  a  combination  of  Tagalese  and 
Chinese,  for  among  aliens  the  Chinese  are  in  the  ascendency. 
Tocupia  contains  800  aboriginal  persons,  resembling  the  in- 
habitants of  Samoa  and  Tahiti,  but  of  finer  physique,  and 
more  paradisiacal,  because  more  primitive.  When  first  visited 
they  manifested  no  fear  of  the  white  man;  being  guileless 
themselves  they  supposed  that  all  others  were  guileless.  They 
have  no  weapons  of  war  because  they  do  not  fight;  are  men 
no  better  than  wild  beasts,  they  might  ask,  that  their  chief 
occupation  should  be  to  slay  each  other?  They  are  tall  and 
graceful,  with  skin  of  bronze,  and  the  men  dye  yellow  their 
long  straight  hair,  parting  it  in  the  middle,  thus  with  all  their 
purity,  displaying  a  little  vanity.  They  are  unlike  any  of  their 
neighbors  in  Polynesia.  British  Guiana,  with  300,000  inhabi- 
tants in  an  area  of  100,000  square  miles,  and  an  annual  for- 
eign trade  of  $20,000,000  is  administered  by  England  on  the 
plan  of  benevolent  despotism,  East  India  coolies  performing 
the  labor,  which  is  servile,  and  without  which  the  colony 
would  be  as  demoralized  and  as  worthless  as  Jamaica. 

It  is  not  easy  for  the  aged  to  change,  and  Chinese  civiliza- 
tion is  very  old;  it  was  old  when  western  Europe  contained 
only  savages,  and  the  Japanese  were  yet  apes.  It  is  perhaps 
because  the  Japanese  a  hundred  years  ago  were  so  far  behind 
what  China  was  a  thousand  years  ago  that  in  the  present  trans- 
formation Japan  makes  more  advance  in  ten  years  than  China 
makes  in  fifty  years.  Japan  obtained  so  recently  from  China 
her  poor  culture  that  she  can  all  the  more  easily  pass  it  back 
and  take  on  a  better  one.  Now  China  must  come  forward  and 
listen  to  the  words  of  the  schoolmaster,  and  take  heed  to  the 
teachings  of  the  new  dispensation,  or  receive  the  punishment 
due  to  disobedience,— or  more  likely  be  punished  in  any  event. 
The  teachings  of  the  strong  are  sometimes  hard  to  bear. 

All  along  down  these  forty  centuries  the  Chinese  have  been 
making  a  wonderful  museum;  some  hundreds  of  millions  of 
human  beings  multiplied  by  say  three  lifetimes  to  the  century 
make  48,000,000,000  souls  that  have  contributed  to  this  mot- 
ley accumulation  of  customs  and  traditions  which  fill  the  super- 
structure of  which  the  whole  empire  is  the  foundation.  In 


434  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

this  strange  museum  how  much  there  is  of  which  the  barbarian 
world  knows  nothing.  What  institutions  and  ceremonials  are 
there  whose  nature  and  origin  were  embalmed  in  the  books 
destroyed  by  Chin  the  wall-builder,  wherein  were  doubtless 
written  the  lives  of  their  ten  thousand  devils, — for  they  know 
no  other  gods, — a  theogony  that  dwarfs  the  conceptions  of 
Assyrians,  Egyptians,  and  Grecians  combined.  Then  the  mill- 
ions of  idiosyncrasies  and  superstitions,  old  rubbish  accumu- 
lations of  four  thousand  years,  born  in  millions  of  minds  and 
evolved  in  the  silence  of  isolation,  crystallizing  age  after  age 
so  that  the  hot  fires  and  heavy  hammerings  of  the  nations  can 
with  difficulty  melt  or  break  them.  And  the  strangest  of  all 
in  this  museum  is  the  man  himself.  There  is  nothing  else  on 
earth  like  a  Chinaman;  he  has  lived  so  long  that  in  his  at- 
tributes he  should  be  either  more  or  less  than  man. 

Mild  as  he  is  in  his  smiling  exterior  he  is  essentially  a  thing 
of  passion.  If  a  laborer,  then  labor  is  his  passion;  if  it  be 
gambling,  or  money-making,  or  opium-smoking,  each  occupa- 
tion becomes  a  business  in  which  he  is  wholly  absorbed.  While 
cast  away  a  waif  among  foreign  devils,  patience  is  his  pas- 
sion, and  when  once  angered  to  kill,  he  is  all  passion.  In  for- 
eign parts,  more  particularly  among  Christian  nations,  it  is 
for  his  virtues  and  not  for  his  vices  that  he  is  hated;  it  is  be- 
cause he  is  apt  skilful  and  industrious,  does  not  interfere  in 
politics  or  religion,  is  saving  of  his  earnings,  docile  and  tem- 
perate, little  given  to  extravagance,  and  is  of  quiet  demeanor, 
that  he  is  insulted  and  driven  forth.  Though  a  servant,  he  is 
not  a  slave.  If  he  works  the  tailings  of  civilized  industry,  he 
works  for  gold.  He  indulges  in  no  sentiment  and  asks  no 
sympathy.  Night  or  day  are  alike  to  him;  on  ship  and  shore 
he  is  equally  at  home,  and  in  a  fight  he  will  handle  the  weapons 
he  has  so  lately  polished  with  the  greatest  glee. 

Not  that  he  is  altogether  perfect;  some  faults  may  be  found 
even  in  a  Chinaman,  fewer  though  than  in  most  people,  as  he 
is  less  human  than  some  others.  First,  his  skin;  it  is  off  color; 
for  so  says  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  black 
and  the  white  shall  inherit  but  not  the  yellow.  Then  he  is  a 
great  liar,  wasteful  even  with  his  lies,  not  having  with  all  his 
centuries  of  thought  and  storehouses  of  learning  reached  the 
true  economics  of  mendacity.  He  has  no  soul,  at  least  none 
as  yet  discovered;  and  hence  no  conscience,  nor  any  moral  at- 


RACE    PROBLEMS  435 

tributes.  He  sometimes  steals,  but  rarely,  and  if  not  cornered 
he  seldom  kills.  He  is  a  machine,  good  only  for  work,  but 
very  good  for  that;  for  American  society  and  citizenship  bet- 
ter material  can  be  found.  There  are  no  such  things  as  public 
life  and  politics  in  China,  and  he  wants  none  when  he  goes 
abroad.  Mandarins  are  paid  to  do  the  ruling,  just  as  girls  are 
paid  to  do  the  dancing;  why  then  trouble?  For  certain  indus- 
tries he  is  the  best  implement,  and  manufacturers  who  have  to 
compete  with  all  the  world  should  have  good  tools.  If  a  mer- 
chant, he  is  fairly  honorable;  if  an  official  in  China,  he  is 
honest  according  to  his  lights,  and  if  honest  true,  for  all  true 
officialism  there  is  bribery  and  corruption.  He  is  just  to 
whatever  degree  desired,  for  whenever  he  wants  justice  he 
buys  it. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

NOTABLE    VOYAGES   INTO   THE    PACIFIC 

THE  world's  great  voyages  have  been  for  the  most  part  into 
the  Pacific.  Jason  in  search  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  and  Co- 
lumbus in  search  of  the  other  side  of  India,  made  famous  voy- 
ages but  not  great  ones.  Vasco  da  Gama  and  his  successors, 
following  the  lead  of  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  and  before 
any  of  them  the  Northmen  in  their  navigations  to  New  Eng- 
land, made  most  important  voyages  and  discoveries,  coasting 
Iceland  and  Greenland,  coasting  Africa  and  rounding  the 
cape  of  Good  Hope  into  the  Indian  ocean;  and  there  have 
been  some  serious  doings  by  ships  and  sailors  at  the  Arctic 
and  Antarctic  ends,  of  the  earth;  but  neither  the  adventures 
of  the  Argonauts,  nor  the  sailings  of  the  Scandinavian  Sea- 
Kings,  nor  the  efforts  in  the  Atlantic  to  find  India,  nor  the 
searches  in  the  ice  for  the  north  pole  can  compare  in  thrilling 
interest  and  romance  with  the  voyages  for  discovery  and 
piracy,  for  circumnavigation  and  possession,  of  the  world's 
most  famous  navigators  into  and  upon  the  broad  Pacific. 

The  first  of  these,  not  counting  the  feeble  attempts  of 
Vasco  Nunez  at  the  Pearl  islands,  or  of  Pedrarias  Davila  at 
Panama,  or  of  Gil  Gonzalez  at  Nicaragua,  was  that  begun  in 
1519  by  Fernando  de  Magalhaens,  called  Magellan  by  English 
writers,  and  completed  in  1522  by  Sebastian  del  Cano. 
Magellan  was  a  Portuguese  sailing  for  Spain;  it  was  the  first 
voyage  of  circumnavigation,  and  as  one  of  the  world's  great 
adventures  it  has  never  been  surpassed. 

The  expedition  sailed  westward  round  Cape  Horn  to  the 
Philippine  islands,  where  Magellan  lost  his  life,  and  returned 
via  the  cape  of  Good  Hope,  all  that  was  left  of  it.  The  story 
is  thrilling,  and  not  without  its  lessons,  made  up  as  it  is  of 
glorious  successes  and  sad  failures.  I  will  give  it  as  briefly  as 
possible. 

436 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC   437 

Born  of  noble  parentage,  about  1480,  Magellan  while  yet 
a  boy  lost  his  father  and  took  service  with  his  native  sover- 
eign the  king  of  Portugal.  It  was  at  a  time  when  all  the 
world  was  astir  with  new  thought  and  adventure.  The  noble 
work  of  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal  was  bearing  its  fruits,  and 
the  Portuguese  were  at  that  time  first  among  maritime  na- 
tions. Imagine  the  effect  upon  a  young  and  ardent  nature  of 
the  voyages  of  Vasco  da  Gama,  the  discoveries  of  Columbus, 
the  writings  of  Amerigo  Vespucci,  and  the  adventures  of 
Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa!  Little  wonder  then  that  when  in 
1504  Francisco  d' Almeida  fitted  out  a  fleet  for  the  East  Indies, 
where  the  Portuguese  then  held  sway,  Magellan  went  with 
him. 

Seven  years  the  young  man  spent  in  India,  while  his  phys- 
ical and  moral  sinews  were  knitting  into  strength  to  meet  the 
emergencies  of  the  future.  During  this  time  an  expedition 
was  sent  from  India  to  the  Moluccas  for  a  cargo  of  spices,  in 
which  Magellan  joined,  touching  at  Sumatra,  and  coming  to 
anchor  in  the  port  of  Malacca,  which  was  crowded  with  ship- 
ping; for  this  was  the  eastern  gate  of  the  Pacific,  and  a  great 
mart  for  the  merchandise  of  that  region,  where  were  found 
gathered  Arabs,  Persians,  Javanese,  Chinese,  and  natives  of 
the  Philippine  islands.  A  plot  was  laid  by  the  king  of  this 
country  to  capture  and  kill  the  Portuguese,  and  so  frustrate 
their  further  attempts  at  trade  in  this  direction;  but  the  deed 
was  prevented,  partly  by  the  watchfulness  of  Magellan,  who 
distinguished  himself  in  various  ways  during  the  voyage. 
This  visit  to  the  eastern  border  of  the  Pacific  led  in  time  to 
the  grandest  results;  for  when  the  report  of  Balboa's  dis- 
covery of  an  ocean  on  the  other  side  of  America  reached  Eu- 
rope, Magellan  bethought  him  if  peradventure  those  great 
waters  did  not  reach  even  to  the  Moluccas,  where  he  had  been 
gathering  spices,  and  he  resolved  then  that  some  day  he 
would  adventure  a  voyage  westward  and  prove  if  his  imagin- 
ings were  true. 

It  was  at  the  busy  city  of  Seville,  the  headquarters  in  Spain 
of  New  World  adventure  and  discovery,  that  preparations  for 
the  voyage  were  made.  Other  disaffected  Portuguese,  like 
Magellan,  had  come  thither  to  take  service  with  the  king  of 
Spain,  then  the  grand  monarch  of  the  world.  His  friend 
Faleiro  was  there,  and  Juan  de  Serrano,  Sebastian  del  Cano, 


438  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Juan  de  Cartagena,  and  others,  and  with  the  assistance  of 
Cristobal  de  Haro,  of  the  great  Antwerp  firm  of  India  traders, 
the  Rothschilds  of  that  epoch,  five  ships  were  obtained  and 
equipped  under  the  usual  regulations.  It  was  stipulated  by 
Charles  V  that  discoveries  made  for  Spain  should  not  en- 
croach on  Portuguese  rights,  as  determined  by  Pope  Alexan- 
der's bull  dividing  the  undiscovered  world  between  the  two 
powers.  The  fleet  comprised  the  San  Antonio,  120  tons, 
Juan  de  Cartagena,  commander;  the  Trinidad,  110  tons,  in 
command  of  Magellan,  captain-general  and  admiral;  Concep- 
tion, 90  tons,  Captain  Gaspard  Quesada;  Vitoria,  85  tons, 
Luis  de  Mendoza  captain;  and  the  Santiago,  75  tons,  Juan  de 
Serrano,  commander.  The  officers  and  crews  were  a  mixture 
of  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  suspicious,  jealous,  and  constitu- 
tionally treacherous.  With  them  went  Antonia  Pigafetta, 
an  Italian,  who  wrote  an  account  of  the  expedition. 

Magellan  was  in  the  prime  of  manhood,  educated  in  all 
the  geographical  science  of  the  day,  a  skilful  navigator,  and 
thoroughly  seasoned  by  experience.  He  was  ambitious,  of 
iron  will,  and  fearless  of  danger.  Next  to  Prince  Henry  the 
Navigator,  and  Vasco  da  Gama,  the  discoverer  of  a  new  route 
to  India,  he  was  the  most  illustrious  Portuguese  of  the  Renais- 
sance. Though  by  no  means  faultless,  his  nature  was  chival- 
rous; like  Prince  Henry,  he  preferred  active  usefulness  to  ig- 
noble ease. 

The  vessels  were  all  well  armed,  and  carried  a  quantity  of 
trading  goods, — knives,  fish-hooks,  woollen  cloth,  velvet, 
ivory,  quicksilver,  combs,  mirrors,  brass  bracelets,  and  20,000 
bells.  Setting  sail  on  the  20th  of  September,  the  fleet 
touched  at  Teneriffe,  then  crossed  to  America  and  coasted 
Brazil  to  Santa  Lucia,  where  it  remained  a  fortnight  to  take 
in  fresh  provisions,  and  for  purposes  of  trade.  As  the  navi- 
gators continued  their  way  southward,  they  entered  and  ex- 
amined every  estuary,  seeking  a  passage  through  the  land  to 
the  sea  of  Vasco  Nunez,  and  to  the  Moluccas.  And  thus  they 
sailed  along,  suffering  now  from  short  rations  and  now  from 
disaffection,  until  they  came  to  Port  San  Julian  near  the  long 
sought  strait.  Here  in  all  its  rank  deformity  broke  forth 
mutiny,  which  indeed  had  long  been  brewing.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark,  as  characteristic  of  the  age  and  race,  that  scarcely 
a  voyage  of  any  considerable  importance  was  made  without 


treachery  and  mutiny.  It  seemed  to  be  almost  universal 
with  the  Latin  nations,  from  monarch  to  sailor.  Call  to 
mind  the  experiences  of  Columbus,  of  Cortes,  Pizarro,  and 
Vasco  Nunez,  and  a  host  of  others.  Nor  was  the  voyage  of 
Magellan  an  exception.  Treachery  had  been  present  from 
the  beginning.  It  came  out  afterward  that  there  was  a  pre- 
arranged conspiracy  on  the  part  of  certain  officers  not  to  obey 
the  captain-general. 

But  that  human  nature  may  not  be  allowed  to  sink  too  low 
in  our  estimation,  we  may  truthfully  say  that  in  every  episode 
displaying  the  baseness  of  some,  the  nobleness  of  others  shines 
forth  with  added  lustre.  Magellan  himself  knew  not  the  ex- 
tent of  his  own  courage  and  genius  before  the  test  of  his  re- 
sources in  time  of  danger  which  was  here  made. 

Storms  were  frequent,  the  cold  became  severe,  and  more 
restricted  rations  became  necessary,  so  that  matters  grew 
worse  and  worse.  The  demand  was  openly  made  that  the 
expedition  should  turn  back.  "  There  is  no  strait,"  they 
said.  "  We  are  entering  a  region  of  eternal  cold;  or  even  if  we 
find  a  passage  through,  what  will  it  advantage  us  without 
food?" 

Slights  and  insults  were  placed  upon  the  captain-general, 
small  at  first,  so  small  as  rather  to  be  felt  than  seen,  gradu- 
ally becoming  so  pronounced  that  Magellan  could  no  longer 
ignore  them.  Among  those  who  from  the  first  had  mani- 
fested evil  designs  was  Juan  de  Cartagena;  and  when  one  day 
some  time  previous  he  had  been  summoned  to  the  flag-ship 
with  the  other  captains  to  attend  the  court-martial  of  an  in- 
subordinate sailor  presuming  on  the  long-continued  patience 
of  his  superior  officers,  he  broke  forth  in  open  abuse  of  the 
captain-general  as  to  the  course  he  was  pursuing.  But  the 
captain  of  the  San  Antonio  little  suspected  the  presence  of 
the  lion  he  was  rousing.  "  Traitor  and  villain,"  cried  Magel- 
lan as  he  sprang  upon  him  and  seized  him  single-handed  by 
the  throat,  "  You  are  my  prisoner."  In  vain  Cartagena  ap- 
pealed to  those  present;  he  was  ironed,  and  passed  to  the  cus- 
tody of  Mendosa  of  the  Vitoria  for  safe  keeping. 

The  time  was  not  then  ripe  for  general  insurrection;  but 
now  at  Port  San  Julian,  cold  and  hunger  impelling  them, 
half  the  fleet  or  more  were  determined  to  abandon  the  enter- 
prise and  return  home.  It  was  an  unhappy  moment  for  Ma- 
15 


440  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

gellan;  almost  all  his  officers  against  him,  and  the  men  would 
only  too  gladly  follow  them.  What  cared  they?  Upon  the 
captain-general  would  fall  the  loss  and  ignominy  of  failure. 
And  the  commander  was  alone.  He  soon  became  aware  that 
he  could  trust  no  one,  and  that  his  life  was  in  danger.  If  he 
would  not  turn  back  they  would  kill  him;  so  they  said;  and 
he  would  not  turn  back. 

Easter-day  was  approaching,  and  it  was  ordered  that  all 
should  then  go  ashore  and  attend  mass,  after  which  service 
the  captains  would  dine  at  the  admiral's  table.  Since  the 
degradation  of  Cartagena,  Alvaro  de  Mesquita,  a  cousin  of 
Magellan,  had  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  San 
Antonio.  Quesada  and  Mendoza  both  declined  to  attend  mass, 
and  Mesquita  was  the  only  captain  present  at  his  kinsman's 
feast. 

Magellan  slept  that  night  on  board  the  Trinidad,  retiring 
to  rest  in  an  uneasy  frame  of  mind.  There  was  likewise  little 
rest  on  board  the  ships  of  the  conspirators.  Yet  all  was  still 
until  the  middle  watch,  when  Cartagena,  who  had  been  re- 
leased by  Mendoza  of  the  Vitoria,  with  Quesada,  Sebastian 
del  Cano,  and  thirty  armed  men,  silently  boarded  the  San  An- 
tonio, and  bursting  into  the  captain's  cabin  seized  Mesquita 
and  put  him  in  irons.  Roused  by  the  noise,  Juan  de  Lorri- 
aga,  the  maestre,  a  faithful  Basque  and  no  mutineer,  at- 
tempted to  stir  up  the  seamen  to  resistance,  but  was  fatally 
stabbed  by  Quesada's  dagger.  Such  others  as  offered  opposi- 
tion were  ironed,  and  command  of  the  ship  given  to  del  Cano, 
who  mounted  the  artillery  and  cleared  the  deck  for  action. 

All  unconscious  of  what  had  been  done  during  the  night, 
Magellan  awoke  next  morning.  Requiring  water,  he  sent  a 
boat  to  the  San  Antonio  for  men;  but  the  crew  was  told  to 
keep  away,  for  Quesada,  not  Magellan,  gave  orders  there. 
Well  knowing  what  that  meant,  and  determined  to  ascertain 
the  worst  at  once,  Magellan  ordered  the  boat  to  go  the  rounds 
and  demand  of  every  captain  for  whom  he  declared.  "  For 
the  king  and  myself,"  Quesada  said.  And  so  said  they  all, 
except  the  captain  of  the  Santiago. 

Here,  then,  was  a  situation  which  might  cause  the  stoutest 
heart  to  quail.  Three  large  ships,  their  captains  and  crews, 
arrayed  against  the  admiral;  only  one,  the  smallest,  besides 
his  own  remaining  faithful.  They  were  Spaniards  all,  these 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  441 

captains,  and  they  hated  him;  they  hated  him  for  a  Portu- 
guese, for  their  superior  officer,  and  for  his  superiority  as  a 
man. 

But  the  rare  and  subtle  qualities  of  the  man  Magellan  now 
came  to  the  front  to  serve  him  at  this  crisis  of  his  life.  To 
attack  by  force  the  three  ships  would  be  madness;  by  strategy 
alone  could  the  purpose  be  accomplished,  and  that  to  be  em- 
ployed against  a  foe  as  cunning  as  himself.  A  proposal  was 
made  by  the  mutineers  to  meet  the  admiral  on  board  the  San 
Antonio  and  talk  over  their  differences;  the  admiral  proposed 
that  they  should  come  on  board  the  flag-ship,  the  Trinidad, 
as  was  usual  and  proper  in  such  cases;  but  neither  party  would 
trust  themselves  in  the  hands  of  the  other.  Then  came  a  let- 
ter from  Quesada.  Magellan  seized  and  detained  the  boat 
which  brought  it. 

Where  now  should  he  strike?  For  strike  he  must,  and 
quickly.  Running  his  mind  over  the  situation,  the  position 
and  personnel,  officers  and  men,  of  the  three  hostile  ships,  he 
bethought  him  of  the  crew  of  the  Vitoria,  many  of  whom  were 
foreigners  and  friendly  to  himself,  though  Mendoza  the  cap- 
tain was  now  his  enemy.  All  things  considered  he  would 
test  fortune  at  this  point.  Into  a  boat,  therefore,  he  de- 
spatched the  alguacil,  Espinosa,  with  five  men  having  con- 
cealed arms.  Another  boat  put  out  from  the  Trinidad  im- 
mediately after  with  fifteen  picked  men  under  Barbosa, 
Magellan's  brother-in-law.  These  men  had  their  instructions 
and  could  be  relied  upon.  Espinosa  made  straight  for  the 
Vitoria,  and  with  his  five  men  was  permitted  to  board  and  pre- 
sent a  letter,  summoning  Mendoza  instantly  to  the  flag-ship. 
With  a  supercilious  smile  Mendoza  replied,  "  I  am  not  the 
kind  of  bird  to  be  caught  with  chaff,"  and  turned  upon  his 
heel.  At  that  instant  Espinosa's  dagger  was  buried  in  his 
neck,  and  the  captain  of  the  Vitoria  fell  dead.  Almost  at 
the  same  instant  Barbosa  with  his  fifteen  men  appeared  upon 
the  deck,  hoisted  the  admiral's  ensign,  and  the  capture  of  the 
Vitoria  was  complete. 

It  was  now  three  to  two  on  the  side  of  the  admiral.  In- 
stantly, and  before  the  rebel  captains  could  realize  what  had 
happened,  Magellan  had  placed  his  three  ships  on  guard  at 
the  entrance  of  the  harbor,  so  that  none  could  escape.  The 
Trinidad  was  cleared  for  action.  During  the  following 


442  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

night  the  San  Antonio  bore  down  upon  the  flag-ship,  drag- 
ging her  anchor.  On  the  quarter-deck,  armed  with  lance  and 
shield,  was  Quesada,  calling  on  his  men  to  fight,  but  they 
would  not.  As  they  neared  the  flag-ship,  Magellan's  men 
grappled  and  boarded  her,  and  seizing  Quesada,  and  other 
leading  rebels,  put  them  in  irons.  The  other  vessel  was  sur- 
rendered by  Cartagena,  and  the  mutiny  was  at  an  end.  Que- 
sada was  beheaded;  his  body,  and  also  Mendoza's,  were  drawn 
and  quartered.  Cartagena  was  marooned,  being  driven 
ashore  before  the  departure  of  the  vessels. 

Preparations  were  now  made  to  continue  the  voyage.  The 
vessels  were  repaired  and  new  officers  appointed.  The  San- 
tiago, sent  coasting  in  search  of  a  strait,  was  wrecked,  with- 
out loss  of  life  however.  Serrano  was  made  captain  of  the 
Conception,  Mesquita  of  the  San  Antonio,  and  Barbosa  of  the 
Vitoria.  Leaving  Port  San  Julian,  the  expedition  after  sev- 
eral stops  saw  at  length  "  an  opening  like  unto  a  bay  ",  which 
they  entered  on  the  21st  of  October,  1520,  and  the  long- 
sought  strait  was  found. 

After  some  further  exploration  of  the  coast  southward,  the 
navigators  proceeded  to  the  examination  of  the  strait,  which 
lasted  thirty-eight  days.  As  it  was  St  Ursula  day,  the  land 
on  the  starboard  as  they  entered  was  called  the  cape  of  the 
Eleven  Thousand  Virgins.  The  fires  seen  burning  on  the 
southern  side  led  to  the  name  of  Tierra  del  Fuego.  The 
water  was  at  first  called  the  strait  of  Patagonia,  later  the  strait 
of  Magellan;  the  land  was  first  called  Magellan's  Land,  later 
Patagonia.  Meanwhile  the  crew  of  the  San  Antonio,  which 
became  separated  from  the  fleet,  mutinied;  the  captain,  Mes- 
quita, was  overpowered  and  put  in  irons,  and  the  ship  re- 
turned to  Spain,  where  the  ring  leaders  were  rewarded,  and 
those  whose  loyalty  had  brought  upon  them  wounds  and 
calumny  were  cast  into  prison. 

The  storms  of  the  Atlantic  had  attended  the  navigators  as 
they  entered  the  strait,  emerging  from  which  Magellan  found 
himself  wafted  by  moderate  winds,  over  placid  waters,  which 
he  called  Mar  Pacifico.  And  cycles  later  sang  the  poet: 

The  fair  breeze  blew,  the  white  foam  flew, 

The  furrow  followed  free, 

We  were  the  first  that  ever  burst 

Into  that  silent  sea. 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  44U 

Is  the  Pacific  as  a  rule  more  pacific  than  the  Atlantic?  No. 
Waters  will  rage  wherever  winds  blow;  and  although  the  Pa- 
cific is  broadest  under  the  equator  where  the  Atlantic  is  nar- 
rowest, and  tropical  Pacific  is  to  tropical  Atlantic  as  three  to 
one,  yet  the  storms  in  the  north  and  the  hurricanes  and  ty- 
phoons of  the  south  and  west,  give  the  sea  of  Vasco  Nunez 
and  Magellan  a  claim  to  surliness  and  treachery  equal  to  any 
other.  But  we  thank  the  Portuguese  for  giving  our  sea  so 
fair  a  name,  which  it  will  do  well  to  remember,  if  seas  remem- 
ber names,  and  be  merciful  to  those  who  trust  their  lives  upon 
it. 

Northward  along  Patagonia  was  now  the  course  of  the  cir- 
cumnavigator, then  northwest,  then  due  west,  and  finally  west- 
by-north  as  straight  for  the  Ladrones  and  the  Philippines, 
close  by  the  Spice  islands  he  had  seen  and  was  now  seeking, 
as  if  he  had  made  the  voyage  round  the  world  twenty  times. 
"  It  is  a  sea  so  vast  that  the  human  mind  can  scarcely  grasp 
it ",  writes  one  of  them.  Scurvy  attended,  and  famine,  with  a 
hunger  so  horrible  that  rats  were  a  luxury,  eagerly  purchased 
at  half  a  ducat  each. 

Time  across  the  Pacific  98  days.  At  the  Ladrones,  or  islands 
of  Thieves,  they  found  "  a  people  of  little  truth,  poor  but  in- 
genious, and  above  all  thieves  ", — a  people  quite  different  from 
the  giant  Patagonians,  of  whom  they  had  kidnapped  two,  who 
died  on  the  way.  The  ships  had  scarcely  come  to  anchor  at 
Thieves  island  when  the  admiral's  boat  was  stolen  by  cutting 
the  rope  which  held  it.  The  little  fellows  swarmed  up  over 
the  sides  of  the  vessels,  and  snatching  up  whatever  they  could 
lay  hands  on,  vanished  into  the  sea.  The  Spaniards  could 
neither  catch  them  nor  drive  them  off;  so  they  fired  into  their 
midst  the  artillery  and  arquebuses,  killing  many.  The  little 
fellows  ran  away;  they  saw  their  hurt,  but  did  not  know  how 
it  had  been  done.  They  thought  it  all  right  to  steal  from 
strangers;  why  not?  Strangers  stole  from  them.  They  knew 
not  the  use  of  the  bow  and  arrow;  and  when  the  Spaniards 
shot  darts  into  their  flesh,  they  would  pull  them  out  and  look 
at  them  in  wonder,  like  monkeys,  in  a  manner  pitiful  to  see. 

Then  came  the  navigators  next  to  the  Philippine  islands, 
which  they  called  the  islands  of  St  Lazarus,  because  on  the 
day  sacred  to  that  saint  they  first  sighted  them;  but  in  1542 
the  archipelago  was  called  by  its  present  name  in  honor  of 
Philip  II  of  Spain. 


444  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

Here  the  natives  brought  them  cocoanuts  and  bananas, 
which  latter  Pigafetta  calls  "  figs  a  foot  long  ";  likewise  or- 
anges and  other  fruits;  also  fish  and  fowls.  In  return  they 
were  given  bells,  little  mirrors,  and  other  like  trinkets.  Then 
came  the  king  with  gold  and  rice,  and  was  given  a  red  and 
yellow  Turkish  robe,  and  a  red  cap.  Other  royal  courtesies 
were  exchanged,  with  feasting  and  demonstrations  of  friend- 
ship. The  gum  of  a  tree  wrapped  in  palm-leaves  was  used  as  a 
candle.  Magellan  soon  brought  forward  the  matter  of  religion, 
and  assured  the  king  that  it  would  be  greatly  to  his  advantage 
to  espouse  the  Christian  faith,  particularly  if  he  was  engaged 
in  war.  No  objections  being  interposed,  the  cross  was  planted 
there. 

Cruising  among  the  islands  in  search  of  advantageous  places 
to  exchange  European  goods  for  gold  and  spices,  Magellan 
came  to  Cebu,  where  all  around  showed  signs  of  opulence. 
The  king  of  Cebu  likewise  accepted  Christianity;  and  Magel- 
lan, desirous  of  making  subject  to  Christ  and  the  king  of 
Spain  the  entire  archipelago,  set  out  with  sixty  Spaniards  and 
1,000  native  allies  to  subdue  the  island  of  Mactan,  where  he 
found  twice  that  number  to  oppose  him. 

But  were  the  enemy  twice  or  thrice  as  many,  to  defeat  them 
with  six  armed  and  armored  Spaniards  were  but  pastime.  So 
thought  the  admiral,  who  dearly  loved  fight.  Arrived  at  the 
island,  a  demand  to  surrender  was  made  on  the  rajah  of  Mac- 
tan,  who  haughtily  refused. 

"  Rest  you  here  in  the  boats,"  said  the  king  of  Cebu  to  Ma- 
gellan, "  while  I  with  my  warriors  conquer  him  ".  "  Nay  " 
replied  the  Portuguese,  "  Rather  do  you  remain  here  while  I 
show  you  how  Christians  fight ". 

Night  came  and  went.  At  break  of  day  the  invaders  landed, 
and  met  with  brave  resistance.  Showers  of  stones  came  down 
upon  them,  and  a  galling  fire  of  spears  soon  made  it  apparent 
that  here  was  no  mimic  war.  The  native*  houses  built  close  to- 
gether among  the  trees  afforded  protection  to  the  islanders, 
while  impeding  the  efforts  of  the  Europeans.  Fire  was  set  to 
the  town.  The  infuriated  islanders  rushed  with  renewed  rage 
upon  the  invaders,  who  gave  way  and  fled  for  their  boats, 
leaving  Magellan,  wounded,  with  only  six  men  to  support  him. 
Slowly  retreating  toward  the  boats  while  fighting  for  their 
lives,  the  Spaniards  were  finally  overcome,  and  Magellan  fell, 


NOTABLE    V7OYAGE8    INTO    THE    PACIFIC    iio 

thrust  through  with  a  dozen  bamboo  spears.  Thus  died  this 
great  man,  a  victim  to  his  religion  and  his  vanity. 

For  the  rest,  the  natives  seeing  that  the  Spaniards  were 
vulnerable,  fought  them  at  every  turn,  until  their  number  was 
greatly  reduced.  The  Conception,  having  become  unfit  for 
service  was  burned.  The  Trinidad,  springing  a  leak,  was  dis- 
mantled and  repaired,  when  she  set  sail  for  Panama,  but  was 
obliged  to  return,  three-fourths  of  the  crew  having  perished 
through  scurvy  and  starvation,  the  survivors  with  the  vessel 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Portuguese.  The  Vitoria,  tak- 
ing on  board  a  valuable  cargo  of  spices  at  the  Moluccas,  sailed 
via  the  cape  of  Good  Hope  in  command  of  Sebastian  del  Cano, 
for  Spain,  where  she  arrived  September  G,  1522,  with  only 
eighteen  survivors  of  the  265  who  had  sailed  with  Magellan. 
Thus  was  completed  the  first  circumnavigation  of  the  globe. 
The  surviving  captain  of  the  Vitoria — properly,  del  Cano, 
but  sometimes  called  Elcano — obtained  as  his  armorial  bear- 
ings a  globe,  with  the  inscription  "  Primus  circumdedisti  me," 
which  insignia  might  better  have  belonged  to  a  better  man, 
were  not  folly  sometimes  so  near  akin  to  bravery. 

A  similarity  in  the  fate  of  two  great  discoverers  here  presents 
itself,  both  events  as  sad  as  they  were  uncalled  for.  Fernando 
Magellan  discovered  the  Philippine  islands,  and  was  killed 
there  by  the  natives;  James  Cook,  two  and  a  half  centuries 
later,  discovered  the  Hawaiian  islands  and  was  killed  there  by 
the  natives. 

Having  thus  found  our  way  to  the  Far  East  by  sailing  west, 
thereby  learning  and  accomplishing  several  things,  first  that 
the  world  of  a  truth  is  round;  that  it  is  larger  than  Ptolemy 
or  any  one  had  supposed;  that  the  sea  of  Vasco  Nunez  is  a 
very  great  sea,  making  the  India  that  Columbus  sought  a  long 
way  from  Cuba, — being  now  upon  the  ground,  we  are  re- 
minded how  from  eastern  Europe  and  western  Asia  Christian 
anchorites  and  Buddhist  monks  made  their  way  eastward  over- 
land, even  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  opening  to  the  world 
new  and  vast  areas  for  conversions  and  commerce.  From  the 
cradle  of  the  race  came  the  Asiatic  to  the  coasts  of  China  and 
Japan.  Humanity  in  some  way  got  itself  planted  on  the  isl- 
ands of  the  Pacific,  and  on  the  continent  of  America;  many 
can  tell  you  how,  though  no  one  knows.  To  find  these  islands 
and  continents,  and  this  scattered  humanity,  known  only  to 


446  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

itself,  Europeans  called  discovery,  and  declared  such  findings 
to  be  their  own  property,  the  people,  their  lands,  their  bodies 
and  souls,  and  all  their  belongings,  enforcing  such  pretensions 
solely  by  virtue  of  superior  strength. 

In  the  year  1541  started  from  Milan,  in  the  name  of  God, 
for  the  New  World,  Girolamo  Benzoni,  and  proceeded  to  the 
Canaries,  there  to  take  ship,  as  there  were  constantly  leaving 
those  islands  for  the  Indies  vessels  laden  with  wine,  flour,  ap- 
ples, and  cheese.  Thence  to  the  coast  of  South  America  was 
but  a  short  run,  and  a  well-beaten  track  ere  this;  then  along 
shore  to  the  Isthmus,  where  the  traveller  and  author  pauses 
to  tell  the  story  of  Columbus  and  the  egg,  and  how  badly 
Vasco  Nunez  was  treated  by  Pedrarias,  and  how  badly  the 
natives  were  treated  by  the  Spaniards,  on  whom  they  retaliated 
as  opportunity  offered,  pouring  molten  gold  down  their 
throats,  and  saying,  "Eat,  Christians,  eat  gold!  Take  your 
fill  of  gold!" 

Because  some  one  had  said  that  Panama  was  as  fine  a  city 
as  Venice,  the  Italian  waxed  wroth,  and  declares  that  this 
person  never  could  have  seen  "  the  more  than  magnificent  and 
most  illustrious  Venice;  a  city  so  exalted  both  as  regards  its 
power,  its  imperial  majesty,  its  commerce  and  riches,  and  also 
its  distinguished  virtue  and  justice,  as  not  to  be  inferior  to 
any  that  the  sun  shines  upon.  And  undoubtedly  ten  Venetian 
merchants  would  suffice  to  buy  up  all  the  merchandise  that 
once  a  year  is  brought  here,  as  well  as  the  town  also.  And  in 
order  that  it  should  not  be  supposed  that  I  say  this  to  deteri- 
orate from  the  glory  and  ambition  of  the  Spanish  nation,  I  will 
also  give  a  complete  account  of  El  Nombre  de  Dios.  This  town 
is  situated  in  the  Northern  sea.  Therefore  fourteen  or  fifteen 
Spanish  vessels,  large  and  small,  usually  go  there,  and  the 
greatest  may  carry  1,800  salms,  or  360  tons.  The  cargoes  con- 
sist of  various  articles,  but  principally  of  wine,  flour,  biscuit, 
and  the  rest  of  oil,  some  cloth  and  silk,  besides  various  other 
merchandise  made  in  Spain  for  household  use,  as  well  as  for 
supporting  human  life.  And  sometimes  it  has  happened  that 
the  market  has  been  so  overstocked  that  the  articles  did  not 
fetch  the  price  which  they  originally  cost  in  Spain.  But  to 
return  to  the  city  of  Panama.  It  is  situated  on  a  small  plain 
near  the  margin  of  the  Southern  sea,  and  at  full  moon  the 
waves  frequently  reach  the  houses  and  enter  those  built  on 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC    447 

that  side  of  the  town.  They  are  encircled  partly  by  reeds  and 
partly  by  wood,  and  nearly  all  roofed  with  shingles,  nor  in 
my  time  did  they  exceed  120.  As  to  the  staple  articles  brought 
to  Panama,  they  consist  of  maize,  a  little  flour  from  Peru, 
poultry,  and  honey.  There  are  in  abundance  cows,  pigs,  or- 
anges, lemons,  all  sorts  of  cabbages,  onions,  lettuces,  melons, 
and  other  produce  of  the  kitchen-garden.  Nombre  de  Dios  is 
built  on  the  seashore,  extending  from  east  to  west,  in  the 
midst  of  a  wood.  The  locality  is  unhealthy,  especially  in 
winter,  from  the  great  heat,  and  the  humidity  of  the  ground, 
for  a  marsh  surrounds  it  on  the  western  side.  Consequently 
a  great  many  people  die  there;  and  as  to  the  houses,  they  are 
like  those  in  Panama.  When  I  resided  in  that  province  there 
were  fifteen  or  twenty  merchants,  wholesale  dealers;  all  the 
other  houses  and  shops  being  occupied  by  small  tradesmen, 
apothecaries,  sailors,  innkeepers,  and  other  useful  people.  All 
the  merchants  who  have  a  home  at  Nombre  de  Dios,  have  one 
also  at  Panama,  and  live  there  till  they  become  rich.  On  the 
northern  side  is  the  port,  which  is  capable  of  containing  many 
ships.  As  to  Spanish  articles  produced  by  this  pestiferous 
land,  there  are  oranges,  lemons,  radishes  the  size  of  a  mouse's 
tail,  some  vegetables,  and  a  few  small  lettuces,  not  very  good. 
All  the  rest  is  like  the  produce  of  Espanola,  Cuba,  and  Nica- 
ragua; that  is  maize,  cazibi,  salt,  meat,  pigs,  and  battatas;  and 
from  Panama  they  bring  cows,  if  they  wish  to  eat  fresh  meat; 
and  every  thing  else  is  brought  from  Spain." 

After  telling  of  Pizarro  and  Peru,  Benzoni  says:  "I  will 
now  relate  how  and  in  what  manner  the  navigation  from  Pan- 
ama to  that  kingdom  is  effected.  Ships  generally  leave  in  the 
month  of  January  and  up  to  the  end  of  April,  which  last  is 
the  best  of  all  the  year,  it  being  the  summer  when  the  winds 
generally  blow  from  the  north-east  and  east;  and  those  ships 
that  sail  at  any  other  season  undergo  severe  trials.  When 
loaded  they  leave  PanamA  and  go  to  Taboga,  or  some  other 
island  near  it,  to  fill  up  their  water.  Those  islands  are  called 
the  Pearls,  because  the  Spaniards  have  found  quantities  there. 
They  then  navigate  to  the  westward  100  or  150  miles,  adopting 
that  route  on  account  of  the  strong  current  constantly  running 
to  the  eastward,  after  which  they  cross  over  to  Peru.  Gen- 
erally along  this  coast,  the  Indians  living  near  the  sea  procure 
good  water  by  digging  large  wells  for  the  purpose;  and  when 


448  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

they  go  from  one  place  to  another  each  man  carries  a  calabash 
full  of  water.  But  when  the  natives  of  Manta  go  to  Puerto 
Vie  jo,  fearing  lest  they  might  meet  some  Spaniards  who  would 
drink  it  for  them,  they  prefer  going  two  miles  inland,  to  get  a 
stinking,  black,  dirty  water  that  rises  out  of  a  rock,  knowing 
that  the  Christians  will  not  drink  that  water.  In  Puna,  and 
in  the  territories  of  Guayaquil  and  Puerto  Vie  jo,  a  certain 
root  is  found  having  many  branches  like  the  oak,  called  zarza- 
parilia,  which  cures  the  French  disease  and  many  others. 
When  it  is  to  be  administered  to  a  patient,  it  is  well  pounded 
between  two  stones  to  obtain  the  juice,  which  is  mixed  with 
some  warm  water  and  drained.  The  sick  drink  very  abundant- 
ly of  it,  and  remaining  in  a  warm  place  perspire  as  much  as 
they  can  bear.  They  continue  this  for  three  or  four  days, 
some  more  some  less,  eating  only  biscuit  and  a  little  roast  fowl. 
On  the  other  hand,  some  boil  the  twigs  in  water  merely  for 
their  daily  beverage;  but  these  patients  continue  to  drink  it 
constantly  for  two  or  three  months." 

His  remarks  about  the  Pacific  coast  of  Central  America  are 
interesting  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  his  visit  was  made  only 
about  twenty  years  after  it  was  first  seen  by  Europeans. 
"  Ships  going  to  Nicaragua  by  the  Southern  sea  enter  a  canal 
on  the  shore,  and  ascend  it  for  about  twenty-five  miles  to  a 
village  called  Eealegio,  consisting  of  a  dozen  houses  made  with 
reeds,  inhabited  by  Spaniards  who  build  ships,  it  being  a  con- 
venient place  and  abounding  in  timber.  A  day's  journey  east- 
ward of  this  spot  lies  the  town  of  Leone,  Cape  Vescovado, 
built  on  the  shores  of  a  lake,  founded  by  one  Francesco  Ernan- 
dez,  as  likewise  was  Granata,  fifty  miles  further  on,  also  on 
the  shores  of  the  said  lake,  near  the  canal  that  opens  into  the 
Northern  sea.  Thirty-five  miles  from  Leone  there  is  a  moun- 
tain with  a  very  large  mouth  whence  there  often  issues  so 
much  flame  and  fire  that  it  is  seen  at  a  distance  of  upwards 
of  a  hundred  miles.  Some  people  thinking  that  there  was 
molten  gold  within,  a  Dominican  friar  determined  to  make 
the  experiment.  He  therefore  had  a  chain  made  with  an  iron 
bucket,  and  together  with  four  other  Spaniards  went  to  the 
spot.  Having  thrown  it  in,  the  bucket  with  part  of  the  chain 
was  consumed  by  the  fire.  The  monk  was  very  angry,  and  re- 
turned to  Leone  complaining  greatly  of  the  smith,  saying  he 
had  made  the  chain  much  lighter  than  he  had  ordered  it.  He 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  449 

therefore  made  another  much  thicker;  but  returning  to  the 
mountain  and  throwing  it  in  the  same  result  ensued,  and  at 
the  same  instant  a  flame  rushing  out  had  nearly  killed  the 
monk  and  his  companion;  whereupon  they  all  ran  off  so 
frightened  that  they  never  repeated  the  enterprise.  I  knew  a 
priest  in  that  town,  who  by  favor  of  the  treasurer  addressed  a 
letter  to  the  king  of  Spain,  entreating  to  be  furnished  with 
two  hundred  slaves  to  open  that  mountain,  promising  to  draw 
very  great  treasure  from  it.  But  his  majesty  told  him  to  open 
it  at  his  own  expense,  for  he  had  no  slaves  to  send  him;  and 
so  the  affair  rested.  The  country  of  Nicaragua  is  not  very 
large,  but  fertile  and  delightful,  though  so  hot  in  summer 
that  people  cannot  walk  except  at  night;  and  the  soil  is 
sandy.  It  rains  during  six  months  of  the  year,  beginning  in 
May;  but  in  the  other  six  months  it  does  not  rain  at  all,  and 
the  night  is  equally  hot  with  the  day.  It  produces  a  great 
deal  of  honey  and  wax,  balsam,  cotton,  and  many  fruits  of  the 
country;  among  which  is  a  sort  not  found  in  the  island  of 
La  Espanola,  or  in  any  other  parts  of  India.  They  are  in 
shape  like  our  pears,  and  have  a  round  stone  within  about  half 
as  large  again  as  a  walnut;  their  flavor  is  excellent.  The  tree 
that  produces  this  fruit  is  very  large  but  bears  a  small  leaf. 
They  have  few  cows,  but  a  great  many  pigs  of  the  Spanish 
breed.  The  tribes  are  numerous,  though  the  Indians  are 
small;  their  houses  are  built  of  reeds,  roofed  with  straw,  and 
not  very  large.  They  have  no  metallic  mines  of  any  sort,  al- 
though when  the  Spaniards  first  went  there  the  natives  pos- 
sessed a  great  quantity  of  gold,  much  alloyed,  brought  from 
other  provinces." 

And  now  we  come  to  the  adventures  of  Francis  Drake,  ad- 
venturer, pirate,  privateer,  circumnavigator,  knight,  or  what 
you  will,  a  man  of  many  parts,  as  free  in  tongue  and  manner 
as  with  sword  and  other  people's  heads.  With  two  vessels, 
one  of  70  tons  and  one  of  25  tons  burden,  three  pinnaces  and 
73  men  and  boys,  this  gentleman  in  1572  crossed  the  Atlantic 
in  search  of  doughty  deeds, — a  force  which  would  be  regarded 
wholly  inadequate  for  the  accomplishment  of  high  endeavor 
at  the  present  day.  First  they  came  to  Nombre  de  Dios  and 
captured  the  town.  And  this  is  what  is  said  of  it.  "  Our 
captain,  finding  those  of  our  company  proposing  difficulties, 
resolved  to  take  the  opportunity  that  night,  and  so  we  ar- 


450  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

rived  there  at  three  of  the  clock  after  midnight.  About  the 
same  time  a  ship  of  Spain  had  arrived  there,  who,  suspecting 
us,  sent  her  gundeloe  to  alarm  the  town,  which  our  captain 
perceiving  prevented,  so  that  we  landed  without  any  difficulty, 
and  seized  upon  six  pieces  of  ordnance,  the  gunner  having 
fled,  whereby  the  town  was  alarm'd.  Our  captain  left  twelve 
men  to  keep  the  pinnaces,  that  we  might  safely  retreat  in  case 
of  danger;  and  securing  the  platform  he  thought  it  best  to 
view  the  mount  on  east  side  the  town,  fearing  lest  there  might 
be  ordnance  planted  there;  whence  we  might  be  annoyed; 
but  seeing  no  fear  of  danger  thence,  we  returned  to  the  city, 
where  we  parted.  John  Oxnam,and  16  of  his  men,  going  about 
back  of  the  king's  treasure  house,  entered  the  east  end  of  the 
market,  and  our  captain  by  the  broad  street  passed  to  the 
market  place  with  sound  of  drum  and  trumpet.  The  fire-pikes 
were  equally  divided  betwixt  them,  and  proved  no  less  ad- 
vantageous to  our  men  than  frightful  to  the  enemy." 

After  some  fighting  the  Spaniards  capitulated,  and  the  Eng- 
lishmen were  shown,  in  the  government  warehouses,  where 
the  treasure-trains  were  unladen,  "  a  huge  heap  of  silver,  be- 
ing a  pile  of  bars  about  70  foot  in  length,  10  in  breadth,  and 
12  in  heighth,"  but  owing  to  loss  of  blood  from  a  wound  re- 
ceived, Drake  was  obliged  to  forego  the  plunder  and  return 
to  his  ship,  leaving  besides  the  silver,  "  in  the  king's  treasure 
near  the  water  more  gold  and  jewels  than  all  our  four  pin- 
naces could  carry  ".  After  robbing  and  burning  many  ships, 
Drake  joined  the  Cimarones,  or  escaped  negro  slaves,  and  with 
their  aid  enjoyed  a  period  of  depredations  toward  Cartagena, 
and  on  the  Isthmus  between  Nombre  de  Dios  and  Panama. 

Once  more  sailing  the  high  seas  from  England,  this  time 
in  1577  with  five  ships,  and  a  chaplain  named  John  Fletcher, 
who  wrote  a  narrative  of  the  expedition,  portions  of  which 
were  true,  Francis  Drake  passed  into  the  Pacific  through  Ma- 
gellan strait  after  undergoing  like  Magellan  his  little  mutiny 
at  Port  San  Julian, — for  Drake  was  not  the  man,  nor  even  yet 
Fletcher  the  scribe,  to  permit  a  Portuguese  to  get  the  better 
of  him  in  telling  a  tale.  Then,  too,  Magellan  makes  the  Pata- 
gonians  tall,  but  Fletcher,  having  doubtless  a  bad  eye  for 
measurements,  adds  some  score  of  inches  and  writes  them  down 
seven  and  a  half  feet  in  height.  The  Patagonians  dried  os- 
triches, of  which  Drake  took  fifty,  forgetting  to  pay  for  them. 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  451 

England  and  Spain  were  now  nominally  at  peace,  though 
that  made  little  difference  with  Drake,  with  whom  piracy  was 
all  one  with  privateering  in  these  far  away  waters  of  the  Pa- 
cific,— though  when  a  few  years  later  he  was  with  John  Haw- 
kins in  the  West  Indies  the  two  nations  were  at  war. 

Continuing  along  Chili  and  Peru,  Drake  coasted  the  two 
continents  as  far  north  as  latitude  48°.  Among  the  incidents 
of  the  voyage  we  read  from  the  divine  Fletcher:  "  As  we  were 
searching  for  water  we  lighted  on  a  Spaniard  sleeping,  who 
had  by  him  thirteen  bars  of  silver,  weighing  4,000  Spanish 
ducats,  which  we  took.  Not  far  from  hence  we  met  another 
Spaniard  with  an  Indian  boy,  driving  eight  Peruvian  sheep, 
each  sheep  bearing  two  leathern  bags,  in  each  of  which  was 
fifty  pounds  weight  of  fine  silver,  which  we  likewise  took. 
Here,  and  towards  the  province  of  Cusko,  100  pounds  of  com- 
mon earth  yieldeth  25  shillings  of  pure  silver,  after  the  rate 
of  a  crown  an  ounce.  We  arrived  at  Lima,  and  though  the 
Spaniards  had  thirty  ships  in  the  harbor,  we  anchored  among 
the  midst  of  them.  Here  we  heard  of  a  ship  that  had  1,500 
bars  of  silver  in  her,  besides  other  things;  we  boarded  her  and 
took  what  we  had  a  mind  to.  We  had  notice  of  a  rich  ship 
laden  with  gold  and  silver  for  Panama,  that  had  set  sail  from 
this  haven.  We  went  in  pursuit,  and  found  in  her  some  fruits, 
conserves,  sugars,  and  a  great  quantity  of  jewels  and  precious 
stones,  13  chests  of  ryals  of  plate,  80  pounds  weight  of  gold, 
26  tons  of  uncoined  silver  valued  at  about  360,000  pesos.  We 
gave  the  master  a  little  linen  for  these  commodities,  and  after 
six  days  departed." 

After  further  similar  experiences  in  the  south,  the  Eng- 
lishmen proceeded  north  in  search  of  a  strait  through  or  pas- 
sage round  the  northern  end  of  the  continent.  Mr  Fletcher, 
in  relating  their  midsummer  encounters  on  the  California 
coast,  doubtless  found  some  who  believed  what  he  said  to  be 
true.  "  We  sailed  until  June  23rd  "  he  writes,  "  1,500  leagues 
in  all,  till  we  came  to  42°  of  north  latitude,  where  in  the 
night  time  we  were  opprest  with  extreme  nipping  cold,  where- 
by several  of  our  men's  health  was  impaired;  and  the  day 
following,  notwithstanding  the  heat  of  the  sun,  the  cold  was 
nothing  abated,  so  that  the  ropes  of  our  ships  were  frozen, 
and  the  rain  which  fell  was  a  kind  of  icy  substance.  And  when 
we  came  two  leagues  further,  it  was  in  that  extremity  that  our 


452  THE   NEW    PACIFIC 

men  could  not  make  use  of  their  hands,  not  to  feed  themselves; 
and  our  meat  as  it  was  removed  from  the  fire  was  in  a  manner 
immediately  frozen."  Queer  weather  for  the  California  coast 
in  June! 

Just  north  of  San  Francisco,  in  what  was  later  known  as 
Drake  bay,  "  We  found  a  fit  harbor,  and  anchored  therein, 
continuing  till  July  23rd,  and  still  were  molested  with  cold. 
The  country  people  sent  out  a  man  in  a  canow  to  us,  who  di- 
rected his  discourse  to  us  all  the  way  as  he  came;  and  being 
come  near  us,  he  had  a  tedious  oration,  using  many  motions; 
which,  ended  with  great  show  of  reverence,  he  returned.  He 
came  also  the  second  time,  and  the  third,  after  the  same  man- 
ner, and  brought  with  him  as  a  present  a  bunch  of  feathers 
artificially  gathered  on  a  string,  made  for  those  who  guard 
the  king's  person  to  wear  on  their  heads;  he  brought  also  a 
basket  made  of  rushes,  filled  with  an  herb  called  tabak.  Our 
general  proffered  him  several  things,  but  he  would  receive 
nothing  save  a  hat."  Evidently  the  writer  had  been  reading 
from  the  works  of  Columbus  and  Cortes. 

Landing  to  repair  his  leaky  ship,  and  throwing  up  a  stone 
wall  for  protection  while  ashore,  "  a  great  multitude  of  them 
came  to  us  bringing  presents  with  them  as  before,  or  rather 
sacrifices,  they  deeming  us  to  be  gods.  Which  our  general 
seeing  fell  a  praying  with  hands  lifted  up  to  heaven, — showing 
that  God  whom  we  served  and  they  ought  to  worship  was 
above, — and  sung  psalms,  and  read  in  the  bible;  to  all  which 
they  were  very  attentive,  and  took  such  delight  in  our  singing 
of  psalms  that  every  time  they  came  to  us  they  desired  us  to 
sing." 

It  was  truly  an  affecting  sight  bringing  tears  to  the  eyes  even 
of  savages,  to  hear  these  pirates  singing  praises,  and  protest- 
ing they  were  not  gods,  while  the  reading  to  them  of  the  bible 
must  have  been  indeed  edifying,  especially  when  we  consider 
how  much  English  the  Eeverend  Fletcher  could  teach  these 
earthworms  in  a  week.  The  gems  and  feather-work,  with 
state  ceremonies  and  fur-robed  royalty,  would  have  better  be- 
fitted the  Aztecs  of  Anahuac  than  the  Diggers  of  California; 
while  the  parson  lets  out  the  secret  of  his  story  about  the 
intense  cold,  and  the  desire  to  abandon  a  tedious  voyage  of 
profitless  discovery  for  the  rich  pickings  of  the  East  Indies,  in 
the  words  following.  "  Our  general  now  considering  that  the 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC   453 

cold  increased,  the  sun  being  now  nearer  the  south,  left  off 
his  design  of  finding  passage  through  the  northern  parts,  and 
therefore  with  consent  of  the  rest  bent  his  course  for  the 
Moluccas  ".  Yet  it  was  still  July,  and  the  latitude  as  they 
gave  it  38°  30'.  Finally  "  it  pleased  God  we  safely  arrived  at 
Plymouth,  after  we  had  spent  two  years,  ten  months,  and  odd 
days  in  seeing  the  wonders  of  the  Lord  in  the  deeps,  in  dis- 
covering so  admirable  things,  and  escaping  so  many  dangers 
and  difficulties  in  our  encompassing  the  world." 

Once  more  in  1585  Drake  visited  the  West  Indies  with  2,300 
men,  capturing,  besides  such  ships  as  came  in  his  way  which 
he  deemed  worth  taking,  the  towns  of  Santiago,  Santo  Do- 
mingo, Cartagena,  and  San  Augustin.  Cartagena  proved  the 
richest  prize,  and  its  capture  is  thus  described.  "  The  troops 
being  now  in  their  march  half  a  mile  this  side  the  town,  the 
ground  grew  straight,  having  the  main  sea  on  one  side,  and 
the  harbor  on  the  other.  This  straight  was  fortified  with  a 
stone  wall  and  ditch.  There  was  only  so  much  unwalled  as 
might  serve  for  passage,  and  that  was  well  barricad'd.  This 
wall  had  six  great  pieces  planted  on  it,  which  shot  directly  on 
our  front.  On  the  inner  side  of  the  straight  they  had  brought 
two  gallies  to  the  shore,  wherein  they  placed  eleven  pieces  of 
ordnance  and  400  small  shot,  which  flanked  our  coming  on, 
and  on  the  land  side  in  the  guard  only  of  this  place  300  shot 
and  pikes.  They  discharged  many  shot,  both  great  and  small, 
but  our  lieutenant-general  approached  by  the  lowest  ground, 
so  that  most  of  their  shot  was  in  vain;  he  also  forbid  us  to 
shoot  till  we  were  come  to  the  wall  side.  The  first  place  we 
came  to  was  the  barricades,  where  we  discharged  our  shot  just 
on  our  enemies  faces,  and  joyned  with  them,  and  made  them 
quickly  retire;  our  lieutenant-general  slew  the  chief  ensign 
bearer  of  the  Spaniards.  We  followed  them  into  the  town, 
and  won  the  mercate  place.  At  every  street's  end  they  had 
made  barricados,  but  we  quickly  took  them  with  small  loss. 
They  had  set  Indians  in  several  corners  with  poysoned  arrows; 
they  had  also  stuck  small  sticks  sharply  pointed,  and  poysoned, 
in  the  ground  in  our  way,  but  we  coming  close  by  the  shore 
shunned  most  of  them."  After  a  stay  of  six  weeks,  the  place 
was  ransomed  for  110,000  ducats. 

The  second  Englishman  to  circumnavigate  the  globe  was 
Thomas  Cavendish,  who  sailed  from  Plymouth  in  1586  with 


454  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

three  vessels  of  40,  60,  and  120  tons  respectively;  he  passed 
through  Magellan  strait,  and  followed  the  track  of  his  prede- 
cessors along  the  coast  of  South  America.  While  ashore  fill- 
ing the  water-cask  near  Valparaiso,  nine  sailors  were  capt- 
ured by  the  Spaniards,  six  of  whom  were  hanged  as  pirates 
at  Santiago,  notwithstanding  the  expedition  carried  the 
queen's  commission.  The  capture  of  Spanish  ships  then  set 
in,  and  Cavendish  did  not  hesitate  at  torture  to  force  his 
prisoners  to  reveal  secrets.  Wanton  destruction  marked  his 
course,  towns  and  ships  being  usually  robbed  and  then 
burned. 

Arrived  off  Cape  San  Lucas,  Cavendish  laid  in  wait  for  the 
famous  Manila  galleon  Santa  Anna,  700  tons,  with  a  cargo  of 
silks,  wine,  fruits,  musk,  and  122,000  pesos  in  gold,  which 
he  captured,  rifled,  and  set  on  fire,  after  landing  the  passen- 
gers, to  the  number  of  190  men  women  and  children;  for 
"  our  general,  out  of  his  great  mercy  and  humanity,  had 
graciously  promised  their  lives  and  good  usage,  in  return  for 
true  dealing  with  him  and  his  company  concerning  such 
riches  as  were  in  the  ship." 

And  thus  is  described  the  manner  of  fight  which  accom- 
plished the  capture.  "  Chase  was  given  and  continued  for 
some  hours,  when  the  English  came  up  with  the  Santa  Anna, 
gave  her  a  broadside,  poured  in  a  volley  of  musketry,  and 
prepared  to  board."  The  attempt  was  bravely  repelled  by 
the  Spaniards,  who  repulsed  the  assailants  by  the  use  of 
stones  hurled  from  behind  protecting  barricades,  with  two 
killed  and  five  wounded.  "  But  we  new-trimmed  our  sails," 
continued  the  narrative,  "  and  fitted  every  man  his  furniture, 
and  gave  them  a  fresh  encounter  with  our  great  ordnance, 
and  also  with  our  small  shot,  raking  them  through  and 
through  to  the  killing  and  wounding  of  many  of  their 
men.  Their  captain  still,  like  a  valiant  man,  with  his  com- 
pany, stood  very  stoutly  into  his  close  fights,  not  yielding  as 
yet.  Our  general  encouraging  his  men  afresh  with  the  whole 
voice  of  trumpets,  gave  them  the  other  encounter  with  our 
great  ordnance  and  all  our  small  shot,  to  the  great  discourage- 
ment of  our  enemies,  raking  them  through  in  divers  places, 
killing  and  wounding  many  of  their  men.  They  being  thus 
discouraged  and  spoiled,  and  their  being  in  hazard  of  sinking 
by  reason  of  the  great  shot  which  were  made,  whereof  some 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC   455 

were  under  water,  within  five  or  six  hour's  fight  sent  out  a  flag 
of  truce  and  parleyed  for  mercy,  desiring  our  general  to  save 
their  lives  and  take  their  goods." 

The  people  thus  so  graciously  left  to  perish  on  a  savage 
coast  by  our  noble  general,  were  saved  by  a  Spanish  miracle. 
As  the  ship  burned  down  to  the  water,  she  was  released  from 
her  anchor  and  drifted  ashore,  and  with  abundant  supplies  on 
board,  served  as  an  ark  to  save  their  lives  and  convey  them 
to  their  destination. 

All  that  the  Englishmen  did  here  on  this  California  coast 
was  accomplished  in  one  vessel  of  120  tons,  the  Desire,  to 
which  the  miniature  squadron  was  ere  this  reduced,  and 
which  now  struck  bravely  out  across  the  Pacific  to  the  La- 
drones,  and  thence  over  the  now  familiar  track  via  the  Phil- 
ippines, the  Moluccas,  and  the  cape  of  Good  Hope,  back  to 
England.  So  successful  had  been  this  adventure,  that  Cav- 
endish in  1591  again  tempted  fortune,  this  time  losing  not 
only  his  property  but  his  life.  Adverse  winds,  intense  cold, 
sickness,  and  treachery  united  to  bring  destruction  upon  the 
expedition,  until  the  pirates  heard  the  pirate's  prayer:  "  Oh 
most  glorious  God,  with  whose  power  the  mightiest  things 
among  men  are  matters  of  no  moment,  I  most  humbly  be- 
seech thee  that  the  intolerable  burden  of  my  sins  may  through 
the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  be  taken  from  me,  and  end  our  days 
with  speed  or  show  us  some  merciful  sign  of  thy  love  and  our 
preservation." 

Another  knight  sent  into  the  South  sea  by  Elizabeth  of 
England  was  Kichard  Hawkins,  who  set  sail  in  1593  with 
three  vessels  provided  at  his  own  cost,  a  method  sovereigns 
always  like  subjects  to  adopt  in  making  discoveries  for  them. 
Hawkins,  however,  more  pirate  than  discoverer,  could  well 
afford  to  pay  his  own  way,  as  will  be  seen  by  perusal  of  the 
chapter  especially  devoted  to  piratical  adventures. 

Five  ships  of  Rotterdam  sailed  into  the  South  sea  in  the 
year  1598.  For  some  time  past  the  Dutch  had  been  promi- 
nent in  the  East  Indies,  voyaging  thither  via  Good  Hope, 
but  now  they  were  ambitious  to  adventure  west,  and  enter 
the  great  Pacific  through  the  strait  of  Magellan.  So  some 
merchants  of  Rotterdam  fitted  out  these  five  vessels,  and  the 
expedition  was  called  the  Company  of  Pieter  Verhagen. 

Most  of  these  early  Rotterdam  ships  came  to  grief,  two  of 


456  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

them,  the  Hope  and  the  Charity — the  Faith  and  Fidelity  bely- 
ing their  names  and  turning  back — struck  bravely  out  for 
Japan,  one  of  which  reached  those  isles.  Of  this  vessel  Will- 
iam Adams  was  pilot.  The  Dutch  found  before  them  there 
the  Portuguese,  who  had  come  from  their  possessions  in 
India,  and  who  informed  the  Japanese  that  the  Dutchmen 
were  pirates;  whereupon  the  Asiatics  plundered  the  ship  of 
the  Hollanders,  though  afterward  restoring  to  them  some  of 
their  effects.  Adams  was  seized  and  sent  to  the  emperor,  and 
this  is  what  the  pilot  says  about  it. 

"  Coming  before  the  king,  he  viewed  me  well,  and  seemed 
to  be  wonderful  favorable.  Then  came  there  one  who  spoke 
Portuguese,  and  through  him  the  king  demanded  of  what 
land  I  was,  and  what  moved  us  to  come  to  this  land,  being  so 
far  away.  I  showed  him  a  chart  of  the  world,  and  the  Magel- 
lan strait  through  which  we  had  come,  and  he  wondered,  and 
thought  me  to  lie.  From  one  thing  to  another  he  passed  in 
his  talk  until  soon  it  was  midnight.  Two  days  after  he  again 
sent  for  me  and  wished  to  know  more  of  my  country,  of  its 
kind  and  condition,  of  its  wars  and  its  peace,  of  its  fruits,  and 
its  cattle,  and  I  made  him  to  think  well  of  my  country. 

"  In  process  of  four  or  five  years  the  king  called  me  to  him 
many  times.  One  day  he  would  have  me  to  make  him  a  small 
ship,  but  I  answered  him  that  I  was  not  a  carpenter  and  had 
no  knowledge  thereof.  '  Well,  do  as  well  as  you  can '  saith 
he,  *  if  it  be  not  good  it  is  no  matter '.  Wherefore  at  his  com- 
mand I  built  him  a  ship  of  the  burthen  of  eighty  tons  or  there- 
about; which  ship  being  made  in  all  proportions  as  our  man- 
ner is,  he  coming  on  board  to  see  it  liked  it  well,  by  which 
means  I  came  into  greater  favor  with  him,  and  visited  him 
often,  and  received  from  him  presents,  and  seventy  ducats 
by  the  year,  and  two  pounds  of  rice  a  day  to  live  upon.  Now 
being  in  such  grace  and  favor  by  reason  of  the  ship  I  had 
built,  and  also  of  some  points  of  geometry  and  the  mathe- 
matics which  I  taught  him,  after  five  years  I  made  supplica- 
tion to  the  king  to  permit  me  to  return  to  my  own  land,  that 
I  might  see  my  wife  and  children  according  to  conscience  and 
nature;  but  the  king  was  not  well  pleased  and  he  would  not 
let  me  go."  And  truth  to  tell,  the  poor  pilot  was  held  an  in- 
dustrial and  educational  prisoner  by  the  wily  Japs  to  the  end 
of  his  days,  though  some  of  the  less  useful  members  of  his 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  457 

ship's  company  were  permitted  to  return  to  their  own  coun- 
try. 

Another  Dutch  expedition  was  fitted  out  this  same  year  by 
Olivier  Van  Noort,  who  with  four  ships  undertook  a  voyage 
of  circumnavigation.  Mr  Van  Noort's  greatest  achieve- 
ments were  shooting  natives  for  amusement  along  the  shore 
of  the  strait,  and  capturing  Spanish  vessels  off  Chili  and  Peru. 
In  these  craft  were  nothing  but  provisions;  though  a  story 
was  once  told  him  of  precious  metals  which  excited  his  imag- 
ination not  a  little. 

"  They  were  in  the  parallel  of  Lima  "  says  the  narrative, 
"  and  they  conjectured  their  distance  from  the  coast  to  be 
about  twenty  leagues.  This  morning  a  negro  named  Eman- 
uel,  one  of  those  kept  of  their  first  prize,  declared  that  there 
had  been  three  boat  loads  of  gold  in  that  ship,  and  that  it  was 
thrown-  overboard  by  order  of  her  captain  whilst  she  was 
chased  by  the  Hollanders.  Upon  this  information  the  pilot, 
Juan  de  San  Aval,  and  the  other  negroes  were  examined.  At 
first  they  denied  Emanuel's  statement  to  be  true,  but  after 
being  put  to  the  torture  they  confessed  every  thing  that  had 
been  alleged,  and  that  the  gold  which  had  been  cast  into  the 
sea  amounted  in  all  to  10,200  pounds  weight,  and  that  it  had 
all  been  brought  from  Santa  Maria  island." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  among  the  pirates  of  those  days 
there  were  both  Spaniards  and  Dutchmen  who  would  have 
confessed  to  the  truth  of  twice  as  much  gold  as  this  having 
been  obtained  on  an  island  where  none  existed  rather  than 
submit  to  further  torture. 

It  was  just  three  hundred  years  prior  to  Admiral  Dewey's 
capture  of  Manila  that  Van  Noort  was  there  thinking  of  capt- 
uring the  place  with  two  of  the  four  vessels  with  which  he 
had  left  Holland.  But  after  taking  one  Spanish  galleon,  one 
of  his  ships  was  destroyed  by  the  Spaniards,  and  he  was  glad 
to  escape  in  the  other,  leaving  a  large  number  of  his  men 
dead. 

A  Spanish  ship,  the  Santa  Margarita,  whose  captain  with 
many  of  the  crew  had  died  from  sickness,  was  captured  by  the 
natives  of  the  Ladrones.  Another  ship  about  this  time  had 
the  misfortune  to  fall  among  these  thieves.  It  was  in  the 
year  1600.  The  vessel  was  the  San  Geronimo,  in  which  Al- 
vara  de  Mendana  had  sailed  on  his  last  voyage,  and  was 


458  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

wrecked  at  the  Ladrones.  The  passengers  and  crew  were 
some  of  them  saved  and  some  killed;  with  the  gold  in  the  ship 
the  natives  decorated  themselves  and  their  trees,  hanging 
some  of  it  around  their  necks,  and  some  among  the  branches 
that  sheltered  them. 

Hernan  Cortes,  conqueror  of  Mexico,  entertained  the  idea 
that  by  following  northward  the  coast  of  California,  one 
would  in  due  time  come  to  India.  The  peninsula  of  Cali- 
fornia was  discovered  in  1533  by  Jimenez,  who  supposed  it  to 
be  an  island.  Since  the  conquest,  Alvarado  had  been  sent  to 
Guatemala,  Cabeza  de  Vaca  had  come  over  from  the  Mexican 
gulf,  his  route  presently  to  be  traversed  by  Marcos  de  Niza 
and  Francisco  Vasquez  de  Coronado.  In  1535  Cortes 
crossed  the  gulf  of  California,  then  called  the  sea  of  Cortes, 
intending  to  make  discoveries  and  settlements  along  the 
coast,  but  was  soon  obliged  to  return,  owing  to  pressing  mat- 
ters at  home.  In  1542  Juan  Rodriguez  Cabrillo  sailed  north- 
ward from  Mexico  along  the  California  coast  as  far  as  Mon- 
terey bay,  where  he  died. 

Quite  early  in  the  voyages  between  Acapulco  and  Manila 
the  Spaniards  caught  the  drift  of  ocean  winds,  bending  south 
to  catch  them  going  west,  and  more  to  the  north  in  sailing 
east,  though  the  instructions  were  to  keep  as  near  the  line  of 
30°  as  possible  both  ways.  In  1565  the  Philippine  ships  were 
sometimes  as  far  north  as  latitude  37°,  though  from  bending 
southward  before  reaching  the  California  coast,  San  Fran- 
cisco bay  had  not  yet  been  seen.  But  in  1584  a  ship  com- 
manded by  Francisco  Gali,  from  Macao  via  Japan,  was  car- 
ried northward  300  leagues,  coming  in  sight  of  the  coast  near 
Cape  Mendocino,  and  in  coasting  thence  southward  the  bay 
of  San  Francisco  was  passed  if  not  seen. 

Torquemada  tells  how  the  king  of  Spain,  desirous  "  of 
forming  an  establishment  on  the  American  coast  to  the  north 
of  California  for  the  convenience  of  the  navigation  from  the 
Philippine  islands,"  ordered  the  viceroy  Velasco  of  New 
Spain  to  attend  to  it.  Whereupon  the  ship  San  Agustin,  in 
returning  from  the  Philippine  islands  in  1595,  "  undertook 
the  examination  of  the  northern  coast  in  search  of  a  harbor. 
She  discovered  the  port  which  has  since  been  named  de  San 
Francisco,  and  being  already  within  this  port,  a  squall  of 
wind  drove  her  on  shore,  and  she  was  there  wrecked."  The 


NOTABLE   VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC   459 

following  year,  by  order  of  the  conde  de  Monterey,  viceroy  of 
Mexico,  Sebastian  Vizcaino  surveyed  the  gulf  of  California, 
and  attempted  colonization  at  La  Paz. 

It  was  in  1599  that  the  third  king  Philip  of  Spain  ordered 
the  coast  of  California  surveyed,  and  in  1602,  the  order  was 
obeyed,  Sebastian  Vizcaino  sailing  northward  with  four  ves- 
sels, the  capitana,  or  flag  ship,  being  the  San  Diego,  which 
name  he  gave  to  the  beautiful  port  he  found  just  above  the 
peninsula.  The  other  vessels  were  the  Santo  Tomds,  the 
Tres  Reyes,  and  a  barco  longo  as  they  called  a  smaller  craft; 
and  they  sailed  from  Acapulco  on  the  5th  of  May. 

Many  whales  were  found  at  a  bay  called  Ballenas,  and  so 
kind  to  each  other  were  the  pelicans  of  Asuncion  island,  that 
if  one  were  tied  up  the  others  would  bring  it  fish  to  eat. 

Torquemada  tells  all  this,  and  being  a  great  inquisitor, 
what  he  says  must  be  true.  The  shores  of  the  peninsula  were 
resplendent  with  pearl  oyster  and  abalone  shells.  Proceed- 
ing northward,  as  the  Monarquia  Indiana  relates,  "  being  six 
leagues  from  the  main  land  they  fell  in  with  four  islands, 
which  were  named  los  Coronados,  two  of  them  small  and  ap- 
pearing like  sugar  loaves,  the  other  two  something  larger. 
To  the  north  of  these  islands  in  the  main  land  is  a  famous 
port  which  was  named  de  San  Diego.  November  the  10th  in 
the  evening  the  ships  of  Vizcaino  anchored  in  port  San 
Diego.  This  was  the  most  secure  harbour  the  Spaniards  had 
discovered  since  leaving  port  de  la  Magdalena.  Here  they 
found  woods,  fresh  water,  a  fruitful  country  which  abounded 
with  game,  as  the  port  itself  did  with  fish.  In  short  this 
seemed  to  be  the  object  of  their  pursuit.  The  inhabitants 
likewise  appeared  friendly  in  their  disposition  towards  the 
Spaniards;  and  it  was  remarked  that  they  had  pieces  of  me- 
tallic ore,  and  that  the  paint  which  they  used  looked  like  a 
mixture  of  blue  and  silver  ".  Then  they  went  on  and  found 
and  named  the  Santa  Catalina  islands,  which  were  inhabited 
by  a  superior  people  having  good  boats,  traffic  with  the  main- 
land, and  a  rude  temple  consecrated  to  idols.  Thus  the  voy- 
age was  continued  as  far  as  latitude  42°,  or  a  little  beyond, 
when  the  expedition  returned. 

By  this  time,  through  the  natural  love  of  the  marvellous, 
and  the  stories  told  by  mariners  who  drew  largely  upon  their 
imagination,  and  a  strong  desire  to  find  a  water  way  through 


460  THE  HEW  PACIFIC 

or  round  the  continent,  the  idea  of  the  existence  of  a  strait 
in  the  north  assumed  the  form  of  mystery.  This  imaginary 
strait,  first  placed  in  South  America,  was  gradually  moved 
northward  as  discoveries  dispelled  the  illusion,  and  finally, 
though  wholly  imaginary,  found  recognition  among  cosmog- 
raphers  and  navigators  as  the  strait  of  Anian.  By  that 
name  it  was  mapped  and  described  by  geographers,  and  many 
were  the  mariners — one  not  to  be  outdone  by  another  so  long 
as  speech  should  stand  for  deeds — who  said  they  had  seen  or 
sailed  through  it.  Besides  the  apocryphal  voyages  and  the 
attendant  imaginary  geography,  the  maps  of  the  period  were 
filled  with  all  forms  of  bodies  of  water,  bays,  straits,  channels, 
rivers,  and  lakes,  the  land  being  labelled  Anian  regnum,  Qui- 
vira  regnum,  and  the  like,  with  California  regio  up  near  the 
north  pole. 

Those  who  feel  called  upon  to  determine  the  authenticity 
of  the  alleged  voyage  of  Bartolome  de  Fonte  into  the  in- 
terior of  the  Northwest  coast,  should  consider  first  of  all 
whether  it  is  easier  to  accept  a  true  voyage  with  false  state- 
ment of  facts  or  a  false  voyage  with  true  statement  of  facts; 
or  if,  indeed,  the  expedition  and  incidents  stated  concerning 
it  are  not  in  the  main  impossible.  The  admiral  de  Fonte 
states  that  in  1640  the  viceroys  of  Mexico  and  Peru  received 
orders  from  the  king  of  Spain  to  place  at  his  disposal  four 
ships,  with  which  he  sailed  north-westward,  sending  one  of 
his  vessels  as  far  as  latitude  77°,  that  is  to  say  into  the  Arctic 
ocean,  where  he  sailed  up  a  beautiful  river,  but  found  no 
strait. 

"  When  I  was  at  Venice  in  1596  "  says  Michael  Lok  the 
elder,  in  Purchas,  His  Filgrimes,  "  happily  arrived  there  an 
old  man,  about  60  years  of  age,  commonly  called  Juan  de 
Fuca,  who  said  that  he  was  pilot  of  three  small  ships  which 
the  viceroy  of  Mexico  sent  to  discover  the  straits  of  Anian, 
along  the  coast  of  the  South  sea,  and  to  fortify  in  that  strait, 
to  resist  the  passage  and  proceedings  of  the  English  nation, 
which  were  feared  to  pass  through  those  straits,  into  the 
South  sea.  And  that  by  reason  of  a  mutiny  which  happened 
among  the  soldiers  for  the  misconduct  of  their  captain,  that 
voyage  was  overthrown,  and  the  ship  returned  from  Califor- 
nia to  Nova  Spania  without  any  thing  done  in  that  voyage. 

"  Also  he  said  that  shortly  after  the  voyage  so  ill  ended, 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC   461 

the  said  viceroy  of  Mexico  sent  him  out  again  in  1592  with  a 
small  caravel  and  a  pinnace  armed  with  mariners  only,  to 
follow  said  voyage  for  the  discovery  of  the  straits  of  Anian, 
and  the  passage  thereof  into  the  sea  which  they  call  the  North 
sea,  which  is  our  North-west  sea.  And  that  he  followed  his 
course  in  that  voyage  west  and  northwest  in  the  South  sea, 
all  alongst  the  coast  of  Nova  Spania  and  California,  and  the 
Indies  now  called  North  America,  until  he  came  to  the  lati- 
tude of  47°,  and  that  there  finding  that  the  land  trended 
north  and  northeast,  with  a  broad  inlet  of  sea,  between  lati- 
tudes 47°  and  48°,  he  entered  thereinto,  sailing  therein  more 
than  twenty  days.  And  that  at  the  entrance  of  this  said 
strait,  there  is  on  the  northwest  coast  thereof  a  great  headland 
or  island,  with  an  exceeding  high  pinnacle,  or  spired  rock, 
like  a  pillar  thereupon  ". 

By  order  of  Philip  III  of  Spain,  Pedro  Fernandez  de  Quiros 
with  three  ships  and  six  Franciscan  friars  sailed  from  Callao, 
Peru,  in  1605  for  the  island  of  Santa  Cruz,  there  to  establish 
a  settlement,  and  thence  to  make  search  for  Tierra  Austral, 
or  the  southern  continent.  His  course  for  800  leagues  was 
west-south-west  until  latitude  26°  was  reached,  when  fear- 
ing to  lose  the  trade  wind  he  edged  west-north-west  back 
again,  and  so  failed  to  find  Australia,  but  came  upon  New 
Zealand  instead.  Many  new  islands  were  discovered,  among 
them  Otaheite,  which  Quiros  called  La  Sagittaria,  and  many 
new  nations  were  converted  to  Christ,  the  sword  and  match- 
lock playing  their  part. 

Joris  Spilbergen,  a  Dutch  admiral,  sailed  round  the  world 
with  six  vessels  via  Magellan  strait  and  Good  Hope  in  1614. 
The  Hollanders  had  ere  this  secured  the  supremacy  at  the 
Spice  islands,  the  Dutch  East  India  company  had  been  estab- 
lished, and  fortresses  and  factories  erected  at  Terenate  and 
elsewhere.  Like  all  similar  expeditions  of  that  day,  Spil- 
bergen's  ships  were  fitted  out  for  trade  as  well  as  for  fighting. 
They  were  merchants,  pirates,  propagandists,  thieves,  and 
murderers,  all  in  one.  Dutch  English  French,  Portuguese 
Spaniards  and  Italians,  all  were  as  sharks  in  the  great  waters 
of  the  world,  roaming  around  seeking  what  to  devour,  only 
the  sharks  appear  more  sensible  than  the  men,  inasmuch  as 
they  do  not  tear  in  pieces  their  own  species. 

It  becomes  monotonous  to  follow  these  early  voyages,  with 


462  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

their  repetition  of  mutinies  and  starvations,  their  wars  ship- 
wrecks and  destructions,  yet  they  were  terrible  realities  to 
those  destined  to  undergo  them.  Spilbergen's  voyage  was  no 
exception  to  the  others.  Yet  he  was  more  fortunate  than 
most  in  this  respect,  that  he  brought  five  of  his  six  ships  safely 
to  the  Moluccas,  even  after  a  brush  with  the  Spaniards  off 
Acapulco. 

Up  to  this  time  all  voyages  into  the  Pacific  from  east  to  west 
had  been  made  through  Magellan  strait,  as  it  was  not  yet 
known  whether  Tierra  del  Fuego  was  an  island  or  a  continent, 
and  if  the  latter  how  far  south  it  extended.  A  company  of 
Dutch  merchants  determined  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the 
matter,  and  in  1615  sent  thither  the  ships  Endracht  and 
Home  in  charge  of  Jacob  le  Maire,  merchant  and  president 
of  the  ships,  and  Wilhelm  Schouten  as  master  mariner.  The 
vessels  were  of  360  and  110  tons  respectively,  one  carrying  19 
guns  and  65  men,  and  the  other  eight  guns  and  22  men.  The 
larger  vessel  returned  in  safety  via  Good  Hope;  the  smaller 
one  was  wrecked,  and  her  name  given  to  the  sharp  point 
round  which  a  ship  now  first  sailed.  It  is  generally  sur- 
mised that  the  name  Cape  Horn  was  given  to  this  point  of 
land  on  account  of  its  shape,  but  such  was  not  the  case.  Here 
as  often  elsewhere,  for  example  San  Diego  bay,  the  Columbia 
river,  and  following  the  tracks  of  Cook,  Vancouver,  and  other 
great  navigators  a  score  of  cases,  the  name  of  the  discovery 
ship  was  given  to  the  land  or  water  discovered. 

The  merchant  mariner  Le  Maire  died  from  ill-treatment 
before  reaching  home. 

The  western  coast  of  Terra  Australis,  or  the  Great  South 
Land,  was  discovered  by  Theodoric  Hertoge  in  1616,  after 
which  the  Dutch  endeavored  to  obtain  further  knowledge  of 
that  region,  but  learned  nothing  until  1642,  when  Tasman  set 
sail  from  Batavia  on  the  most  important  voyage  of  circum- 
navigation since  Magellan's.  Knowledge  of  this  expedition 
was  given  to  the  world  by  the  captain's  own  hand  under  the 
following  caption.  Journal  or  Description  by  me,  Abel  Jansz 
Tasman,  of  a  Voyage  from  Batavia  for  making  Discoveries 
of  the  Unknown  South  Land  in  the  year  161$.  May  God 
Almighty  be  pleased  to  give  his  blesseng  to  this  voyage.  Amen. 

They  came  in  two  ships  to  the  island  Mauritius,  and 
thence  passed  on  to  a  land  which  they  called  Van  Diemen's, 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO.   THE    PACIFIC    163 

sailing  afterward  to  Staten  island,  then  to  Amsterdam  island, 
then  Rotterdam  island,  and  finally  to  New  Guinea  or  Tasman 
land.  Tasmania,  once  Van  Diemen's  Land,  is  now  a  British 
colony,  with  cities  and  broad  settlements,  commerce  agri- 
culture and  manufactures,  and  education  and  religion,  all  of 
which  and  much  more  the  country  lacked  when  Tasman  first 
saw  it. 

Knowledge  of  Alaska  and  the  north  Pacific  begins  with  the 
voyage  of  Vitus  Bering  in  1741,  sent  by  Catherine  of  Russia 
in  conformity  with  the  desire  expressed  by  Peter  the  Great  to 
know  if  the  lands  of  Asia  and  America  joined,  though  others 
than  Peter  and  Catherine  knew  ere  this  that  they  did  not. 

Deshnef's  ascent  of  the  Anadir  in  1648  was  not  followed  by 
the  Kamchatka  expeditions  until  nearly  a  century  later.  All 
this  time  speculation  was  rife  as  to  the  great  land  opposite,  of 
which  the  Russians  had  heard  so  much  from  the  natives. 
Bering's  first  expedition  was  to  the  Anadir;  in  his  second  he 
steered  straight  across  for  Mount  St  Elias.  The  St  Peter  and 
the  St  Paul,  the  former  commanded  by  Bering  and  the  latter 
by  Chirikof,  set  sail  from  Avatcha  bay  on  the  4th  of  June 
1741,  and  continued  together  for  ten  days,  when  the  vessels 
parted  company  in  the  night.  Chirikof  sighted  the  Ameri- 
can continent  at  latitude  55°  21'  on  the  night  of  the  15th  of 
July,  and  Bering  the  next  day  at  noon.  While  on  his  return 
the  commander  died  at  Bering  island,  on  the  8th  of  Decem- 
ber. 

The  ships  of  war  Dolphin  and  Tamar,  Byron,  commander, 
were  sent  by  the  British  government  in  1764  to  make  discov- 
eries in  the  South  seas,  as  this  was  an  easy  way  to  get  posses- 
sion of  some  of  the  world, — Spain  and  Portugal  having  so 
much  of  it, — namely,  to  find  and  take  possession  of  any  lands 
unclaimed  by  any  other  European  power.  Byron  took  pos- 
session of  the  Falkland  and  other  islands.  Again  in  1767  the 
Dolphin,  Captain  Wallis,  crossed  the  Pacific,  and  anchored 
for  a  short  time  in  Matavi  bay,  Tahiti  islands,  giving  to  the 
harbor  the  name  Port  Royal,  and  to  the  land  that  of  King 
George  the  Third  island. 

James  Cook,  son  of  a  farm  laborer  apprenticed  to  a  haber- 
dasher, ran  away,  became  sailor,  then  mate,  joined  the  navy  in 
1755,  attained  distinction,  was  again  given  the  control  of 
ships,  and  in  1769,  with  a  commission  as  lieutenant,  was  ap- 


THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

pointed  to  the  command  of  the  ship  Endeavor,  with  a  corps 
of  scientists  to  make  observations  on  the  transit  of  Venus  at 
Tahiti,  where  they  arrived  on  the  13th  of  April,  and  erected 
an  observatory.  The  work  there  accomplished,  Cook  set  out 
in  search  of  a  continent  in  the  south  Pacific,  and  so  came  first 
to  New  Zealand,  and  then  to  New  Holland,  or  Australia,  and 
on  return  to  England  was  made  captain.  In  a  second  voyage 
he  searched  still  further  for  continents,  large  or  small;  and  in 
a  third  voyage  he  came  upon  Hawaii,  and  death.  To  a  rich 
Englishman,  Banks,  the  world  owes  the  Cook  voyages.  With 
a  Swedish  friend,  Solander,  Banks  accompanied  the  expedi- 
tions. 

From  the  Society  islands,  in  his  third  voyage,  Captain  Cook 
sailed  northerly  for  six  weeks  without  encountering  any  land 
other  than  an  uninhabited  coral  island  until  he  came  to  the 
group,  then  unknown,  and  supposed  by  him  to  be  now  for  the 
first  time  discovered,  and  which  he  named  the  Sandwich  isl- 
ands. The  people  manifested  but  little  fear,  and  spoke  a  lan- 
guage similar  to  those  of  the  Society  islands  and  New  Zealand. 
On  board  ship  they  displayed  wonder  and  curiosity,  examin- 
ing every  thing  about  them,  even  the  hands  and  faces  of  the 
sailors.  They  asked  the  strangers  if  they  used  food,  and  on 
seeing  them  eat  dry  biscuit,  brought  jams,  plantains,  sweet 
potatoes,  and  pigs.  After  ten  days  Cook  sailed  to  Nootka 
sound,  where  he  found  quite  a  different  people,  the  copper- 
colored  Americans,  with  speech  guttural,  high  cheek  bones, 
long  coarse  hair,  painted  faces,  and  clothed  in  skins.  They 
also  had  fringed  mantles  made  of  the  inner  bark  of  trees,  and 
others  of  dog's  hair.  The  finest  skins,  selected  for  the  gar- 
ments of  the  wealthy,  were  fringed  with  wampum,  used  as 
currency  as  well  as  ornament,  similar  to  that  found  elsewhere 
in  North  America,  and  on  the  opposite  coasts  of  northern 
Asia.  This  fact  points  to  a  widely  extended  commerce  carried 
on  at  that  time  among  the  native  nations  on  both  sides  of  the 
north  Pacific,  and  of  which  there  can  be  no  doubt,  across  Ber- 
ing strait,  and  far  southward  on  either  seaboard.  At  Nootka 
trade  was  established,  the  natives  bringing  deer,  bear,  wolf, 
fox,  raccoon,  polecat,  martin,  and  sea-otter  skins,  besides  fur 
and  bark  garments,  and  various  other  articles,  and  receiving 
in  exchange  pieces  of  iron  and  tin,  knives,  nails,  chisels,  look- 
ing-glasses, buttons,  and  like  trinkets.  In  the  north  the  Eng- 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC   405 

lish  found  and  named  several  places,  as  Prince  William  sound, 
Cook  river,  Prince  of  Wales  cape,  St  Lawrence  bay,  anchoring 
at  length  at  Unalaska.  They  crossed  to  the  Asiatic  coast, 
passed  through  Bering  strait  and  gazed  on  the  icy  ocean,  and 
then  returned  to  the  islands  called  Sandwich. 

Captain  Cook  was  of  that  pronounced  type  of  British  naval 
commanders  whose  stern  sense  of  right  could  find  no  place 
for  compromise  with  evil.  He  made  no  distinction  as  to  class 
or  condition  in  regard  to  offenders.  A  man-eating  South  sea 
islander,  in  whose  ethics  theft  from  a  stranger  was  no  wrong, 
must  all  the  same  be  judged  by  European  standard,  and  pun- 
ished by  European  law.  The  savages  of  the  Pacific  for  once 
should  feel  the  presence  of  the  English  schoolmaster.  This 
doctrine,  or  rather  instinct,  cost  him  his  life.  At  the  Society 
islands,  a  native  stole  his  peacocks,  of  which  he  was  making  a 
collection.  The  chief  was  seized  and  held  until  the  thief 
brought  back  the  birds.  At  the  Hawaiian  islands  a  boat  was 
stolen,  and  in  the  attempt  to  bring  the  chief  on  board  his  ship, 
Cook  was  killed. 

It  happened  in  this  way.  Cook  had  chosen  for  his  port, 
after  several  days'  search,  a  commodious  harbor  on  the  south 
side  of  Hawaii,  where  he  was  met  by  15,000  wondering  natives 
in  3,000  canoes,  besides  the  swarm  of  swimmers  that  filled  the 
water  like  porpoises,  men  Women  and  children,  paddling  and 
shouting  excitedly  to  each  other  in  a  carnival  of  happiness 
and  hilarity.  Proceeding  to  land,  two  chiefs  with  long  white 
poles  opened  a  passage  for  the  captain's  pinnace  through  the 
throng  of  canoes,  who  on  reaching  the  shore  fell  prostrate 
before  the  visitors,  while  other  officers  appeared  and  per- 
formed the  same  service  for  them  on  land.  And  all  the  peo- 
ple, whether  on  the  water  or  on  the  land,  on  house-top  or  hill- 
top,— for  the  dusky  natives  filled  all  space, — covered  their 
faces  with  their  hands  to  shut  from  sight  the  all  too  radiant 
spectacle. 

Though  the  aged  king  of  the  Hawaiians  was  absent  on  one 
of  the  other  islands,  a  spot  of  ground  was  set  aside  for  the  use 
of  the  strangers,  and  placed  under  taboo,  that  they  might  rest 
there  unmolested.  Harmony  prevailed,  and  on  the  return 
of  the  king  courtesies  were  exchanged,  royalty  dining  on  ship 
board,  while  Cook  and  his  officers  were  feasted  ashore,  baked 
pig  and  sweet  potatoes  being  served  on  plantain  leaves,  with 
cocoa-milk  to  drink. 


.±66  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

But  in  time  came  that  familiarity  which  breeds  contempt, 
and  the  celestial  visitants  became  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives 
worse  than  things  terrestrial.  The  demands  for  food  and  as- 
sistance which  were  quickly  granted  at  first,  were  now  met 
with  sullen  indifference  or  refusal.  Then  knives  and  guns 
were  brought  out  by  the  English,  while  the  islanders  began  to 
throw  stones.  Thus  matters  stood  until  one  day  Captain 
Cook,  requiring  wood  for  use  on  shipboard,  offered  two  hatch- 
ets for  the  fence  which  enclosed  their  sacred  burial  place, 
which  were  indignantly  refused.  Throwing  in  another  hatch- 
et, the  three  being  in  like  manner  refused,  Cook  tore  down 
the  fence,  and  with  it  some  images  regarded  with  veneration 
by  the  natives,  and  conveyed  the  plunder  to  his  ships  amid 
the  clamor  of  the  priests  and  the  fury  of  the  people.  Then 
he  hastened  out  to  sea,  but  was  driven  back  by  a  storm. 

Those  who  insist  on  squaring  the  conduct  of  the  savages 
by  civilized  measurements,  should  at  least  be  willing  to  recip- 
rocate in  kind,  and  grant  to  savages  the  rights  of  civilization. 
Fancy  a  body  of  Polynesians  ascending  the  Thames  in  boats 
to  the  houses  of  Parliament,  of  landing  there  and  demanding 
the  doors  and  pulpits  of  Westminster  Abbey  in  return  for  three 
muskrat  skins,  and  on  being  refused,  seizing  the  sacred  portals 
and  carrying  them  away  by  force,  on  the  plea  that  the  wood 
was  needed  for  their  camp-fires.  ••  , 

Compelled  again  to  go  ashore  for  ship  supplies  and  repairs, 
hostilities  were  resumed,  and  after  that  increased,  until  upon 
the  disappearance  one  night  of  a  cutter,  Cook  determined  on 
more  stringent  measures.  He  would  entice  the  king  on  board 
his  ship,  and  hold  him  captive  until  the  boat  should  be  re- 
turned. To  this  end  the  English  commander  next  day  sta- 
tioned guards  at  various  points  in  the  bay,  and  landing  with 
the  marines  in  a  pinnace,  proceeded  to  the  king's  house  and 
induced  him  to  come  out  and  walk  with  him  to  the  beach. 
Meanwhile  the  cry  was  raised  among  the  natives  that  their 
king  was  captured,  and  they  rushed  to  his  rescue.  Stones 
were  thrown,  and  the  marines  opened  fire.  A  stone  struck 
Cook,  who  seeing  the  man  who  threw  it  shot  him  dead.  But 
just  as  the  Englishmen  reached  their  boats  to  embark,  a  na- 
tive stabbed  Cook  in  the  back,  who  fell  with  his  face  in  the 
water,  and  immediately  expired. 

The  command  of  the  expedition,  upon  the  death  of  Cook,  fell 


on  Captain  Clerke,  and  after  another  short  visit  to  Kamchatka 
and  Bering  strait,  he  too  died,  and  was  buried  near  Petropaul- 
ovski,  having  been  ill  with  consumption  before  leaving  Eng- 
land. Captain  Gore  then  took  the  lead,  sailing  in  the  Resolu- 
tion, with  King  in  command  of  the  Discovery.  And  so  they 
dropped  down  the  Asiatic  coast,  calling  at  Canton,  then  across 
the  Indian  ocean,  and  finally  back  to  England. 

Among  the  many  voyages  of  circumnavigation  and  discovery 
was  one  about  this  time  made  purely  in  the  interests  of  com- 
merce, that  is  to  say,  the  fur-trade  of  the  Northwest  coast. 

Two  vessels  were  fitted  out  by  an  association  of  English 
merchants,  the  King  George,  Nathaniel  Portlock  commander, 
and  the  Queen  Charlotte,  Captain  George  Dixon,  and  sent  round 
Cape  Horn  into  the  Pacific.  At  the  Hawaiian  islands  they 
found  the  natives  troublesome,  being  at  once  too  familiar  and 
suspicious,  fearing  that  these  Englishmen  had  come  as  the 
avengers  of  the  death  of  Captain  Cook.  Portlock,  indeed,  had 
sailed  with  Cook. 

Crossing  to  the  American  coast,  they  reconnoitred  in  the 
vicinity  of  Cook  river  and  Prince  William  sound,  and  returned 
to  the  Hawaiian  islands  to  winter.  Here  they  found  every 
thing  tabooed,  so  that  it  became  necessary  to  sue  for  the  king's 
favor  and  to  satisfy  the  priests.  Presents  were  made  and  the 
taboo  removed;  when  gifts  ceased  the  taboo  again  appeared. 
This  was  the  kind  of  commerce  the  Englishmen  found  here  at 
this  time,  easy  and  profitable  enough  for  the  winning  side.  A 
shark  story  comes  in  at  this  juncture;  the  monster,  caught 
by  the  King  George  men,  was  "  13£  feet  long,  8£  broad,  and 
six  feet  in  the  liver;  48  young  ones  were  in  her,  about  eight 
inches  each  in  length;  two  whole  turtles  of  60  pounds  each; 
several  small  pigs,  and  a  quantity  of  bones," — altogether  a 
fishy  story. 

In  the  spring  they  were  again  on  the  American  coast,  seek- 
ing to  buy  furs.  At  Prince  William  sound  they  fell  in  with 
the  ship  NootJca,  captain  Mears,  late  from  Bengal.  The  scurvy 
had  been  making  fearful  havoc  on  board  the  NootTca,  all  the 
crew  being  dead  or  disabled,  the  captain  alone  being  in  con- 
dition to  walk  the  deck.  Believed  from  his  sore  distress,  Mears 
informed  his  friends  that  few  furs  could  be  obtained  there, 
as  vessels  from  India  had  already  secured  them,  and  other 
traders  from  that  quarter  were  expected  immediately.  There- 


468  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

upon  it  was  decided  that  the  Queen  Charlotte  should  proceed 
to  King  George  sound,  and  the  King  George  life  boat  to 
Cook  river,  and  so  anticipate  and  cut  off  the  traffic  from 
their  rivals. 

The  fur  traders  were  quite  successful,  and  tell  another  fish 
story, — how  they  hauled  the  seine  frequently,  never  getting 
less  than  2,000  salmon  at  a  haul.  They  could  have  soon  filled 
fifty  ships  with  their  fine  fish.  For  the  sick  they  made  spruce 
beer,  and  administered  it  with  good  results.  The  savages  were 
expert  thieves.  Trade  being  over,  they  went  again  to  the 
Hawaiian  islands,  and  from  there  to  Canton,  where  a  selection 
of  their  best  skins  was  sold  to  the  East  India  company  for 
$50,000,  and  the  inferior  ones  sold  to  the  Chinese.  Both  ves- 
sels returned  to  England  with  cargoes  of  tea. 

Jealous  of  the  antipodal  acquisitions  of  the  other  great 
powers  of  Europe,  particularly  of  the  results  of  the  recent  cir- 
cumnavigations of  England,  the  French  government  in  1785 
sent  out  the  Boussole  and  Astrolabe,  with  every  scientific 
equipment,  in  command  of  La  Perouse,  a  naval  officer. 

At  the  Hawaiian  islands  the  Frenchmen  were  met  by  150 
canoes  laden  with  fruit  and  hogs,  for  which  the  natives  wanted 
pieces  of  iron.  On  the  American  coast,  near  Mount  St  Elias, 
where  were  pine  trees  six  feet  in  diameter,  twenty  seamen 
were  lost  in  the  surf.  Thence  to  Monterey  and  Loretto,  and 
across  to  Manila,  where  all  the  necessaries  of  life  except  Eu- 
ropean cloth  could  be  cheaply  procured.  "  A  great  nation  " 
says  La  Perouse,  "  without  any  other  colony  than  the  Philip- 
pines, which  would  establish  a  proper  government  there,  might 
view,  all  the  European  settlements  in  Africa  and  America  with- 
out envy  or  regret." 

Past  Formosa  and  through  the  strait  of  Korea,  La  Perouse 
came  to  Japan;  but  the  inhabitants  of  these  shores  seemed 
not  given  to  hospitality,  and  the  Frenchmen  continued  their 
way  to  Kamchatka,  where  they  hobnobbed  with  the  natives, 
and  then  turning  southward,  and  touching  at  the  Hawaiian 
islands,  finally  reached  Australia,  and  came  to  anchor  in  Bot- 
any bay.  From  this  place  were  received  by  the  world  the  last 
report  and  the  last  tidings  of  the  expedition,  which  then  in- 
tended to  return  to  the  isle  of  France  in  1788,  for  when  it 
sailed  hence  it  dropped  from  sight  forever.  It  was  thought 
that  the  vessels  were  wrecked  on  or  near  the  shore  of  New 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  469 

Caledonia,  and  that  the  ill-fated  mariners,  officers  and  crews, 
were  either  drowned  or  killed  by  the  savages. 

As  in  New  World  conquest,  so  in  circumnavigation,  it  is 
remarkable  how  many  commanders  of  early  expeditions  lost 
their  lives  in  the  Pacific,  more  particularly  on  the  Asiatic  side. 
Captain  D'Entrecasteaux,  with  the  sloops  UEsperance  and 
La  Recherche  went  into  the  South  sea  in  1791  in  search  of  La 
Perouse,  who  was  lost  there,  and  to  survey  the  island  of  New 
Holland.  Touching  at  the  Friendly  islands  and  at  New  Zea- 
land, the  expedition  arrived  at  Java,  where  dissension  broke 
out  among  the  crews,  the  captain  having  died  a  short  time  be- 
fore. 

The  voyage  of  discovery  to  the  north  Pacific  ocean  and 
round  the  world  by  George  Vancouver  in  1790-5,  was  made 
primarily  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  if  any  navigable  pas- 
sage existed  between  the  two  oceans.  Two  ships,  the  Discovery 
and  the  Chatham,  entered  the  Pacific  from  the  west,  coming 
by  way  of  Good  Hope  to  New  Zealand  and  Tahiti,  and  thence 
north  to  the  Hawaiian  islands  and  the  Northwest  coast. 

Remembering  Cook,  the  Hawaiians  did  not  seem  to  over- 
flow with  joy  on  seeing  Vancouver;  nevertheless,  in  return 
for  presents,  two  houses  were  tabooed  for  the  use  of  the  strang- 
ers. Many  American  trading-vessels  put  in  at  these  islands  at 
this  time,  and  the  north  Pacific  whaling  fleets  wintered  there. 
With  regard  to  trade  between  the  Northwest  coast  and  China, 
Vancouver  says,  "  Previously  to  the  departure  of  Rowbottom 
and  Williams,  they  informed  me  that  their  captain  had  con- 
ceived that  a  valuable  branch  of  commerce  might  be  created 
by  the  importing  of  the  sandal-wood  of  this  country  into 
India,  where  it  sells  at  an  exorbitant  price;  that,  in  the  fur 
trade,  immense  profits  had  been  gained,  insomuch  that  it  was 
expected  not  less  than  twenty  vessels  would,  on  these  pursuits, 
sail  with  their  captain,  Kendrick,  from  New  England,  and 
that  they  were  desired  to  engage  the  natives  to  provide  several 
cargoes  of  this  wood,  which  is  easily  procured,  as  the  moun- 
tains of  Attowai  as  well  as  those  of  Awhyhee,  abound  with 
the  trees  from  which  it  is  produced;  though  we  were  not  able 
to  procure  any  of  their  leaves,  to  determine  its  particular  class 
or  species.  The  wood  seemed  slightly  to  answer  the  descrip- 
tion given  of  the  yellow  sandal-wood  of  India,  which  is  there 
a  very  valuable  commodity,  and  is  sold  by  weight.  The  pearls 


470  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

I  saw  were  but  few,  and  consisted  of  three  sorts,  the  white, 
yellow,  and  lead  color.  The  white  were  very  indifferent,  be- 
ing small,  irregular  in  shape,  and  possessing  very  little  beauty; 
the  yellow  and  those  of  the  lead  color  were  better  formed,  and 
in  point  of  appearance  of  superior  quality." 

The  navigator  never  failed  to  indulge  a  fad  for  giving  names 
to  the  things  and  places  which  he  passed.  Never  did  he  forget 
the  object  of  his  voyage,  which  was  to  discover  and  to  name. 
He  even  surpassed  his  predecessor,  Cook,  in  this  respect;  that 
is  to  say,  though  he  discovered  less  he  named  more,  and  so 
accomplished  his  part.  Scarcely  had  he  entered  the  Pacific 
before  he  began  to  give  names  to  every  thing  in  sight,  islands, 
straits,  seas,  rocks,  rivers,  and  bays,  mountains  peninsulas  and 
promontories.  The  largest  unnamed  island  he  called  after 
himself;  a  large  sound  he  named  after  his  first  officer,  Peter 
Puget;  an  island  in  Puget  sound  he  called  Whidbey,  from  his 
ship-master.  To  one  of  his  ships  he  gave  immortality  as  Port 
Discovery,  and  to  the  other  as  Chatham  sound.  It  was  an 
amiable  trait,  after  all,  and  as  innocent  as  it  was  inexpensive 
in  the  gratification.  As  in  his  20,000  miles  of  Pacific  ocean 
navigation  he  encountered  many  of  those  things,  there  were 
plenty  to  go  round  among  himself,  his  family,  his  friends,  his 
admirers,  those  favorable  to  him  and  those  to  whom  he  was 
favorably  inclined;  and  when  all  these  and  the  rest  had  their 
names  thus  perpetuated,  he  let  fly  his  fancy, — and  see  the 
genius  of  the  navigator  displayed  in  the  inventing  of  new  and 
unique  names,  as  Eclipse  island,  Point  Possession,  Doubtful 
island,  Break-sea  island,  the  summit  of  wit  and  fitness  being 
attained  in  Some-body-knows-what  strait.  And  every  thing 
so  fitting, — the  commander  being  a  great  man  has  a  great  isl- 
and, the  cook  being  a  small  man  has  a  small  island. 

Crossing  to  Fuca  strait,  the  Sound  was  entered  and  named, 
and  every  rock  and  coast-crook  was  examined,  baptized,  and 
recorded.  Some  of  the  names  thus  given  remain  to  this  day, 
but  most  of  them  have  been  obliterated  or  overlooked  by  the 
profane  and  barbarous  Yankees.  Some  of  the  landmarks  to 
which  the  Englishman  gave  names  the  Spaniards  had  named 
before,  and  it  ofttimes  became  a  question  which  should  give 
way  to  the  other.  The  coast  as  a  whole  Vancouver  called  New 
Albion.  Mount  Baker  was  named  after  Joe  Baker,  one  of 
Vancouver's  lieutenants.  Mount  Kainier  takes  its  name  from 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  471 

an  English  admiral,  Port  Townshend  from  a  noble  marquis, 
and  Hood  canal  and  a  dozen  other  places  from  right  honorable 
lords  of  England.  Thus  they  came,  and  saw,  and  named,  and 
then  they  went  away. 

At  Admiralty  inlet,  so  called  in  honor  of  the  men  who  had 
sent  him  there,  thinking  perhaps  that  the  voice  of  Vasco 
Nunez  de  Balboa,  heard  at  Panama  279  years  before,  had  not 
penetrated  thus  far  northward,  and  it  being  the  king's  birth- 
day, and  a  good  king  too,  the  king  of  England — not  as  on  the 
previous  similar  occasion  the  king  of  Spain — George  Vancou- 
ver took  formal  possession  of  all  that  region,  after  serving 
the  men  "  as  good  a  dinner  as  we  were  able  to  provide  them, 
with  a  double  allowance  of  grog."  But  neither  the  dinner 
nor  the  grog  established  a  title  which  held  good  for  any  con- 
siderable length  of  time. 

After  further  exploration  of  the  coast,  attending  meanwhile 
the  convention  at  Nootka  sound,  Vancouver  dropped  down  to 
San  Francisco  bay,  and  took  observations  of  California  and 
the  missions.  One  of  his  ships  entered  the  Columbia  river. 
After  another  visit  to  the  Hawaiian  islands,  and  more  observa- 
tions on  the  American  coast,  the  great  navigator  returned  to 
England.  The  more  immediate  object  of  Vancouver's  voyage 
was  to  receive  from  Spanish  officials  at  Nootka  formal  restitu- 
tion of  lands  they  had  seized.  Next  in  importance  were  the 
fisheries  and  fur  trade  of  China,  and  a  survey  of  the  Northwest 
coast;  any  islands  or  other  territories  any  where  which  could 
be  picked  up  for  England  would  come  in  handy. 

One  of  the  most  able  men  to  visit  the  Pacific  in  the  interests 
of  science  was  Alexander  von  Humboldt.  Obtaining  permis- 
sion in  1799  from  the  court  of  Madrid  to  visit  the  Spanish 
American  colonies,  and  to  sail  by  the  Acapulco  galleon  to  the 
Philippine  islands,  Humboldt  spent  in  South  America  and 
Mexico  about  five  years,  sending  back  great  quantities  of 
specimens  of  nature  in  these  parts,  animal  vegetable  and  min- 
eral, hundreds  of  boxes  of  samples  of  soils  salts  and  metals, 
dried  plants,  skins  of  animals,  stuffed  beasts  and  birds,  and 
fishes  and  reptiles  in  alcohol,  all  of  which  were  subsequently 
minutely  described  in  manuscript,  and  elaborately  pictured 
and  published  in  many  bulky  tomes.  Never  before  was  a 
country  and  its  people  so  analyzed  and  described  by  so  able 
a  philosopher  and  writer. 
16 


472  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

The  first  voyage  of  Eussians  round  the  world  was  made 
under  the  auspices  of  Alexander  I  in  1803-7  by  Von  Krusen- 
stern  and  Lisiansky,  an  account  of  which  is  given  by  G.  H. 
Von  Langsdorf.  Sailing  from  Copenhagen,  and  touching  at 
Teneriffe  and  Brazil,  the  ship  rounded  Cape  Horn,  and  came 
to  the  Marquesas  and  Hawaiian  islands,  proceeding  thence  to 
Japan  and  Kamchatka,  then  over  to  Kodiak  and  down  to 
San  Francisco,  again  visiting  Alaska  and  Asia  before  return- 
ing home. 

At  Petropaulovski  was  the  garrison  of  150  soldiers,  artillery- 
men, cossacks,  and  commissary  of  the  Eussian-American  trad- 
ing company.  The  Eussian  settlement  at  Unalaska  rested  si- 
lently beside  the  water  and  amidst  the  high,  sharp,  snow-clad 
peaks  around.  Of  the  factory  at  Kodiak,  Bander,  a  Dane,  was 
now  superintendent.  Here  the  expedition  was  welcomed  by 
three  Eussian  priests  and  thirty  native  boys  ringing  bells. 
The  settlement  at  Kodiak  consisted  of  thirty  buildings,  in- 
cluding church,  barracks,  school,  shops,  and  warehouses;  for 
this  was  now  the  entrepot  for  collecting  and  storing  the  peltries 
brought  from  a  wide  distance  round.  During  the  five  years 
preceding  1802,  more  than  18,000  sea-otter  skins  were  brought 
to  this  factory. 

Over  the  Aleutian  isles  and  all  the  possessions  of  the  Eus- 
sians in  America  ruled  for  forty  years  M  Von  Baranof,  with 
his  headquarters  at  Sitka.  Justice  here  was  arbitrary,  even 
factors  of  subordinate  posts  ruling  as  rigidly  as  they  were 
governed,  so  that  the  poor  native,  if  he  were  permitted  to 
live  and  labor  for  his  masters  might  deem  himself  indeed 
fortunate.  Baranof  was  not  a  bad  man  for  a  Eussian,  though 
he  loved  his  drink  and  hated  the  English.  The  arrival  of  the 
Krusenstern  expedition  raised  the  population  of  Sitka  to  200, 
with  six  ships  in  the  harbor.  The  hospitality  of  the  town  was 
so  taxed  that  natives  were  sent  out  for  dried  fish,  berries,  train- 
oil,  whale-fat,  and  saranna-roots  to  supplement  the  food  sup- 

piy- 

Every  effort  having  failed  to  penetrate  through  the  con- 
tinent by  water,  in  1819,  with  the  ship  Hecla  and  Griper,  Cap- 
tain Parry  was  sent  by  the  British  government  to  find  a  north- 
west route  round  it;  that  is,  to  pass  if  possible  through 
Lancaster  sound  to  Bering  strait.  This  expedition  was  fol- 
lowed by  many  others  into  the  Arctic  ocean,  of  which  I  have 
not  space  to  speak. 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC   473 

A  Voyage  of  Discovery,  Otto  Von  Kotzebue,  a  lieutenant  in 
the  Russian  navy,  calls  his  expedition  into  the  South  sea  and 
Bering  strait,  in  1815-18,  in  search  of  a  northwest  passage. 
The  voyage  was  made  in  the  ship  Rurick,  and  the  expenses 
were  borne  by  Count  Romanzof,  chancellor  of  the  empire. 

From  Cronstadt  to  Copenhagen,  then  to  Plymouth, — this 
for  the  start;  for  the  journey,  Teneriffe,  Brazil,  Chili,  Kam- 
chatka, Kotzebue  sound,  California,  Hawaiian  isles,  Radack,  St 
Helena,  and  home.  At  Concepcion  the  excursionists  saw 
whales  spout  in  the  bay,  and  drank  with  Chilian  dames  in 
Paris  gowns  and  diamonds  the  tea  or  herb  of  Paraguay,  of 
which  Chili  used  $1,000,000  worth  annually.  This  port  is 
recommended  to  navigators  as  a  place  of  refreshment,  pro- 
visions and  fruits  being  abundant. 

After  a  short  cruise  among  the  South  sea  isles,  the  expedi- 
tion proceeded  north,  touched  at  Petropaulovski,  entered  and 
explored  Kotzebue  sound,  and  returning  south,  called  at  Una- 
laska,  where  Kriukof,  agent  of  the  Russian-American  com- 
pany, with  five  24-oared  bidares,  came  out  and  towed  the 
vessel  into  the  harbor,  and  then  served  up  for  dinner,  in  honor 
of  his  guest,  one  of  the  only  twelve  oxen  at  that  post.  At 
San  Francisco  the  Russians  found  an  abundance  of  fresh  food, 
and  the  people  very  ready  to  supply  them,  as  they  had  pre- 
viously received  government  orders  to  that  effect. 

At  the  Hawaiian  islands,  the  next  place  to  visit,  the  king 
met  them  in  a  free  and  friendly  manner,  and  regaled  them 
with  baked  pig  and  wine,  and  then  harangued  the  captain  thus: 
"  I  learn  that  you  are  the  commander  of  a  ship  of  war,  and 
are  engaged  in  a  voyage  similar  to  those  of  Cook  and  Van- 
couver, and  consequently  do  not  engage  in  trade;  it  is  there- 
fore my  intention  not  to  carry  on  any  trade  with  you,  but  to 
provide  you  gratis  with  every  thing  that  my  islands  produce." 

The  costumes  of  the  more  aristocratic  islanders  at  this  time 
were  a  mixture  of  native  nakedness  and  European  full  dress, 
with  manners  corresponding.  At  the  palace  door  were  naked 
sentinels  with  cartridge-box  and  pistols  strapped  to  their  waist, 
and  at  the  landing  and  elsewhere  were  native  guards  with 
muskets.  Gentlemen  in  swallow  tail  coats  squatted  in  the 
sand,  and  ladies  in  silk  skirts  and  waists,  extremely  decollete", 
waddled  about  in  broad  bare  feet.  Another  fashion  was  to 
make  one  suit  serve  several  persons,  one  wearing  the  trousers, 


474:  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

another  the  coat,  and  another  the  vest.  At  a  state  dinner 
where  hog  was  tabooed,  the  supply  for  that  day  being  devoted 
to  the  gods,  the  king  unfastened  an  ornamental  collar  from, 
his  neck  and  handed  it  to  the  Eussian  commander.  "  They 
tell  me  ",  he  said,  "  that  your  monarch  is  a  great  hero.  I  am 
a  great  hero  myself,  and  I  send  him  this  collar  in  token  of  my 
regard  ".  Prior  to  their  departure,  the  Russians  received  a  full 
supply  of  provisions,  "  taro,  jams,  cocoanuts,  bananas,  and 
watermelons  in  abundance.  The  hogs  are  so  large  that  the 
whole  crew  could  not  eat  one  in  two  days." 

Kotzebue's  vessel  was  a  good-sized  frigate,  with  a  cargo  for 
Kamchatka,  the  commander  having  orders  to  proceed  to  Fort 
Ross,  a  Russian  post  on  the  coast  of  California,  there  to  re- 
main a  year  and  then  return  to  Cronstadt:  But  on  arrival  at 
Ross,  finding  his  presence  not  needed,  he  bore  away  to  the 
Hawaiian  islands. 

In  1825  Captain  Beechey,  of  the  royal  English  navy,  sailed 
for  the  Pacific  and  Arctic  oceans,  to  cooperate  with  polar  ex- 
peditions in  search  of  a  northwest  passage.  His  course  was 
round  Cape  Horn  to  Valparaiso,  thence  across  via  Tahiti  and 
the  Hawaiian  islands  to  Kamchatka,  through  Bering  strait 
nearly  to  Point  Barrow,  and  back  by  way  of  California,  Mexico, 
and  Chili,  home.  The  expedition  was  barren  of  results,  save 
as  a  view  of  the  great  ocean  at  that  time.  The  published  nar- 
rative is  filled  chiefly  with  accounts  of  intercourse  with  the 
natives,  of  no  special  interest  to  us  at  this  point  of  time. 

Comparing  the  Society  and  Hawaiian  islands,  on  reaching 
the  latter,  Captain  Beechey  says:  "  Our  passage  from  Otaheite 
to  this  place  had  been  so  rapid  that  the  contrast  between  the 
two  countries  was  particularly  striking.  At  Woahoo  the  eye 
searches  in  vain  for  the  green  and  shady  forests  skirting  the 
shore,  which  enliven  the  scene  at  Otaheite.  The  whole  coun- 
try has  a  parched  and  comparatively  barren  aspect;  and  it  is 
not  until  the  heights  are  gained,  and  the  extensive  ranges  of 
taro  plantations  are  seen  filling  every  valley,  that  strangers 
learn  why  this  island  was  distinguished  by  the  name  of  the 
garden  of  the  Sandwich  islands.  The  difference  between  the 
natives  of  Woahoo  and  Otaheite  is  not  less  conspicuous  than 
that  of  the  scenery.  Constant  exposure  to  the  sun  has  given 
them  a  dark  complexion  and  coarseness  of  feature  which  do 
not  exist  in  the  Society  islands,  and  their  countenances  more- 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  473 

over  have  a  wildness  of  expression  which  at  first  misleads  the 
eye;  hut  this  very  soon  wears  off,  and  I  am  not  sure  whether 
this  manliness  of  character  does  not  create  a  respect  which 
the  effeminacy  of  the  Otaheitans  never  inspires.  As  we  rowed 
up  the  harbour,  the  forts,  the  cannon,  and  the  ensign  of  the 
Tamahamaha,  displayed  upon  the  ramparts  of  a  fort  mount- 
ing forty  guns,  and  at  the  gaff  of  a  man-of-war  brig  and  of 
some  other  vessels,  rendered  the  distinction  between  the  two 
countries  still  more  evident." 

The  interior  of  California  was  to  the  outside  world  still  an 
unknown  wilderness,  as  the  following  remarks  made  at  San 
Francisco  will  show.  "  When  Langsdorff  was  at  this  port,  an 
expedition  was  undertaken  by  Don  Louis  Argiiello  and  Padre 
Uria  to  make  converts,  and  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the 
country  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Sierra  Nevada;  and  I  learned 
from  Don  Louis,  I  believe  a  son  of  the  commander,  that  they 
traced  the  Sacramento  seventy  or  eighty  leagues  up,  and  that 
it  was  there  very  wide  and  deep."  Acting  governor  at  this 
time  was  Lieutenant  Ignacio  Martinez,  of  whom  the  English 
captain  says:  "Nothing  seemed  to  give  him  greater  pleasure 
than  our  partaking  of  his  family  dinner,  the  greater  part  of 
which  was  dressed  by  his  wife  and  daughters,  who  prided 
themselves  on  their  proficiency  in  the  art  of  cooking.  It  was 
not,  however,  entirely  for  the  satisfaction  of  presenting  us 
with  a  well-prepared  repast  that  they  were  induced  to  indulge 
in  this  humble  occupation.  Poor  Martinez,  besides  his  legiti- 
mate offspring,  had  eighteen  others  to  provide  for  out  of  his 
salary,  which  was  then  eleven  years  in  arrears.  He  had  a 
sorry  prospect  before  him,  as  a  short  time  previous  to  our 
visit,  the  government,  by  way  of  paying  up  these  arrears, 
sent  a  brig  with  a  cargo  of  paper  cigars  to  be  issued  to  the 
troops  in  lieu  of  dollars.  But  as  Martinez  justly  observed, 
cigars  would  not  satisfy  the  families  of  the  soldiers,  and  the 
compromise  was  refused.  The  cargo  was,  however,  landed  at 
Monterey  and  placed  under  the  charge  of  the  governor,  where 
all  other  tobacco  is  contraband;  and  as  the  Spaniards  are  fond 
of  smoking,  it  stands  a  fair  chance  in  the  course  of  time  of 
answering  the  intention  of  the  government." 

The  trade  of  California  at  this  time  was  in  sending  hides, 
tallow,  and  horses  to  the  Hawaiian  islands,  grain  to  Sitka, 
and  a  few  furs  to  China,  receiving  in  return,  as  opportunity 


476  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

offered,  dry-goods,  furniture,  wearing  apparel,  agricultural 
implements,  deal  boards,  and  salt,  and  from  China  silks  for  the 
decoration  of  the  churches  and  fire-works  for  the  celebration 
of  saints'-days. 

The  Hawaiian  islands  now  held  commercial  intercourse  with 
the  outside  world,  having  established  a  market  for  the  sale 
of  native  products,  receiving  Mexican  dollars  and  European 
cloth  in  exchange.  The  sandal-wood  in  the  mountains  was 
found  to  be  a  profitable  article  of  commerce,  a  ready  market 
for  it  being  found  in  China. 

From  San  Francisco  Beechey  made  an  excursion  to  the 
Philippine  and  Lew  Chew  islands,  the  latter  situated  north- 
east of  Formosa,  and  the  trade  of  which  was  mainly  with 
China,  Japan,  and  Formosa.  "  Commerce  between  Loo  Choo 
and  China,"  says  Beechey,  "  is  conducted  entirely  in  Japanese 
vessels,  which  bring  hemp,  iron,  copper,  pewter,  cotton,  culi- 
nary utensils,  lacquered  furniture,  excellent  hones,  and  occa- 
sionally rice,  though  this  article  when  wanted  is  generally 
supplied  from  an  island  to  the  northward  belonging  to  Loo 
Choo,  called  Ooshima;  but  this  is  only  required  in  dry  seasons. 
The  exports  of  Loo  Choo  are  salt,  grain,  tobacco,  samshew, 
spirits,  rice  when  sufficiently  plentiful,  grass  hemp  of  which 
their  clothes  are  made,  hemp,  and  cotton.  In  return  for  these 
they  bring  from  China  different  kinds  of  porcelain,  glass, 
furniture,  medicines,  silver,  iron,  silks,  nails,  tiles,  tools,  and 
tea,  as  that  grown  upon  Loo  Choo  is  of  an  inferior  quality." 
Formosa  exported,  among  other  things,  gold  and  silver,  mother 
of  pearl  and  tortoise-shells.  "  Loo  Choo  had,  besides  a  tribute 
vessel,  two  junks  making  annual  trips  to  China.  These  isl- 
anders had  hand-looms  and  spinning-wheels,  mills  worked  by 
cattle,  and  manufactured  paper,  spirits,  cloth  of  cotton  and 
grass,  pottery,  baskets,  salt,  and  made  a  large  flat  shell  so 
transparent  that  the  Japanese  used  it  as  window  glass." 

A  notable  journey  into  the  Pacific  was  that  of  Charles 
Darwin,  in  the  ship  Beagle,  in  1832,  sent  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment to  complete  the  survey  of  Patagonia  and  Tierra  del 
Fuego,  begun  by  Captain  King  in  1826;  also  to  survey  the 
coasts  of  Chili  and  Peru,  to  visit  some  of  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific,  and  to  carry  a  chain  of  chronometrical  measurements 
round  the  world.  For  five  years  the  great  naturalist  thus  pur- 
sued his  studies,  in  the  companionship  of  Captain  Fitz  Roy 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  477 

and  his  officers,  the  government  contributing  £1,000  toward 
the  printing  of  his  report  on  his  return. 

At  Port  Desire  Mr  Darwin  discourses  on  the  wild  llama,  the 
characteristic  quadruped  of  the  plains  of  Patagonia.  At  Port 
San  Julian,  geology  claims  his  attention;  at  Santa  Cruz,  the 
natives,  basaltic  lava,  and  the  habits  of  the  condor;  at  the 
Falkland  islands,  wild  cattle,  wild  horses,  rabbits,  fire-making 
as  an  art,  streams  of  stones,  and  the  habits  of  birds;  at  Tierra 
del  Fuego,  the  savages,  the  scenery  and  the  strait;  Port 
Famine,  the  forests  of  Cape  Horn,  edible  fungus,  bartering 
tobacco  for  skins  and  ostrich-feathers,  the  equable  humid  and 
windy  climate,  the  height  of  the  snow  line  and  the  descent  of 
glaciers,  erratic  bowlders,  climate  and  productions  of  the  ant- 
arctic islands;  Valparaiso,  the  clear  dry  delicious  atmosphere, 
the  rounded  hills,  with  scanty  vegetation  and  high  cordillera 
beyond,  the  bed  of  shells  at  the  hacienda  of  Quintero,  and  the 
reddish-black  vegetable  mould  which  proved  to  be  marine 
mud. 

The  narrow  seaboard  strip  comprising  Chili  is  traversed  by 
several  sierra  .lines  parallel  to  the  cordillera,  between  which 
are  basins  opening  into  each  other,  and  supporting  towns,  as 
San  Felipe,  Santiago,  and  San  Fernando.  These  basins  are 
easily  irrigated  and  fertile;  and  every  landholder  in  the  valley 
has  part  of  the  hill  country  for  his  cattle,  which  at  the  annual 
rodeo  are  driven  down,  counted,  and  marked.  Wheat,  corn, 
and  beans  are  easily  grown;  yet  for  all  this,  these  people  are 
not  as  prosperous  as  they  should  be. 

Mining-shafts  puncture  the  hills  and  mountains  every 
where.  Copper  ore  is  sent  to  Swansea  to  be  smelted.  All  is 
singularly  quiet  about  the  mines;  no  smoke,  and  no  rattle  of 
machinery.  The  government  encourages  prospecting,  and  per- 
mits mining  on  any  one's  ground  on  payment  of  a  small  sum. 
The  topper-mining  process  of  Chili  is  cheaper  than  that  of 
Cornwall.  The  miners  are  hard-worked  and  poorly  paid,  five 
or  six  dollars  a  month  being  the  usual  wage,  with  poor  food, 
— figs,  bread,  beans,  and  roasted  cracked  wheat  with  seldom 
any  meat.  On  these  meagre  earnings  they  have  to  clothe  and 
feed  their  families. 

The  naturalist  gives  the  habits  of  the  puma,  or  South  Amer- 
ican lion,  and  describes  the  various  species  of  humming-birds. 
Nothing  in  nature  is  too  large  or  too  small  for  his  keen  vision 


478  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

and  intelligent  observation.  In  crossing  the  cordillera  he 
gives  its  geology,  and  description  of  its  torrents,  with  remarks 
on  the  sagacity  of  mules;  the  discovery  of  mines  and  the  effect 
of  snow  on  rocks;  and  the  zoology  of  the  Andes,  with  what 
he  saw  of  locusts,  and  silicified  trees  buried  as  they  grew.  On 
the  island  of  Chiloe  was  found  peat,  a  wild  potato,  and  many 
strange  birds.  One  great  forest  covers  these  islands,  which 
have  strong  winds  and  a  heavy  rainfall.  The  inhabitants  were 
short  and  of  dark  complexion,  and  lived  on  shell-fish  and  po- 
tatoes. 

From  Valparaiso  to  Coquimbo  and  Copiapo,  Darwin  trav- 
elled by  land,  and  this  part  of  the  coast  is  minutely  described. 
He  bought  for  £25  six  animals  before  starting,  and  sold  them 
at  the  end  of  the  journey  for  £23.  The  occupants  of  hundreds 
of  hovels  along  the  cordillera  foothills  are  supported  from 
the  surface  gold-washings.  From  the  deep  mines  the  Chilian 
brings  up  on  his  back,  up  a  narrow  shaft  on  a  notched  pole, 
200  or  300  pounds  of  ore  at  a  load;  yet  they  seldom  eat  meat 
and  are  not  muscular.  The  rainfall  is  growing  less;  a  little 
moisture  goes  far  here  in  agriculture.  The  shingle-terraces  of 
Coquimbo  he  thinks  were  formed  by  the  sea.  The  hills  are 
sterile  but  the  valleys  are  fertile.  At  intervals  are  large  haci- 
endas where  rich  stock-raisers  and  corn-growers  feed  and 
lodge  travellers  for  a  consideration.  Earthquakes  come  now 
and  then  to  break  the  monotony  of  things,  while  the  dead 
dogs  which  strewed  the  road-side,  killed  for  fear  of  hydro- 
phobia, excite  the  comments  of  the  naturalist. 

Entering  Peru,  the  ancient  aboriginal  ruins  attract  atten- 
tion, also  an  elevated  water  course,  the  Iquique  saltpetre  works, 
the  salt  supposed  to  percolate  under  ground  from  the  cor- 
dillera, many  leagues  distant.  The  chief  cost  of  the  nitrate 
of  soda  is  in  carrying  it  to  the  ship's  side,  where  it  sells  at 
three  to  four  dollars  per  hundred  pounds.  The  hills  %-ound 
Lima  are  carpeted  with  moss.  Callao  is  a  small,  filthy  seaport. 
There  are  hereabout  many  decomposing  shells,  and  fossil  hu- 
man relics.  At  the  volcanic  Galapago  archipelago  are  many 
craters,  in  one  of  which  is  a  salt  lake;  many  curious  fishes 
and  reptiles,  great  tortoises,  and  marine  lizards  feeding  on  sea- 
weeds. The  fear  of  man  in  animals  is  not  an  instinct  but  an 
acquisition. 

The  cultivable  land  in  Tahiti  is  restricted  to  fringes  of  low 


NOTABLE    VOYAGES    INTO    THE    PACIFIC  479 

alluvial  soil  round  the  base  of  mountains,  and  protected  from 
the  sea  by  coral  reefs.  For  tracts  for  the  cultivation  of  yams, 
sugarcane,  and  pineapples,  often  orange,  banana,  cocoanut 
and  bread-fruit  trees  have  to  be  cleared  away;  the  guava,  im- 
ported as  the  choicest  of  fruit,  has  now  become  from  its  re- 
dundant growth  like  a  noxious  weed.  Since  giving  up  the 
meat  of  man  as  food,  a  mild  benignant  expression  character- 
izes the  features  of  the  gentle  savage,  pleasant  indeed  to  see. 

Whence  comes  the  ceremony  of  rubbing  noses,  found  alike 
in  New  Zealand  and  Alaska?  Some  people  think  hand-shak- 
ing better;  and  some  prefer  rings  in  their  ears  to  quills  in 
their  cheeks  or  rings  in  their  noses.  It  is  pleasant  to  find 
here  and  in  Australia  an  antipodal  England  where  the  weary 
world-encompasser  may  find  rest  and  refreshment  as  in  Lon- 
don. The  green  forests,  the  black  aborigines,  the  blue  moun- 
tains, and  the  white  cliffs,  all  add  their  enchantments  to  the 
scene. 

In  the  coral  isles  the  tiny  insect  is  king  and  creator.  In 
the  Keeling  archipelago  are  ring-formed  reefs  round  some  of 
the  islands,  open  on  one  side.  The  three  classes  of  reefs  are 
atolls,  barrier,  and  fringing-reefs.  Atolls  are  lagoon-islands. 
Barrier-reefs  are  in  diameter  from  three  miles  to  forty-four 
miles;  that  which  partially  encircles  New  Caledonia  is  400 
miles  long.  The  Malays  are  now  free,  and  so  will  not  take  the 
trouble  to  work  or  run  away.  To  catch  a  turtle,  a  man  jumps 
from  his  boat  upon  its  back,  and  there  rides  until  the  beast 
is  exhausted,  when  it  is  hauled  in,  and  in  due  time  eaten. 
On  the  cocoanut,  pigs  and  the  land-crab  alike  feed. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

CRUSOE   ISLAND 

FOLLOWING  the  progress  of  investigation  and  discovery, 
we  find  in  circumnavigations  and  adventures,  and  the  publi- 
cation of  books  and  reports  attendant  thereunto,  a  natural 
sequence  of  causes  and  effects  as  elsewhere  in  human  affairs. 
Thus  the  piracies  of  Francis  Drake  led  to  the  adventures  of 
Thomas  Cavendish,  and  these  to  the  voyages  of  Shelvocke  and 
Woodes  Rogers,  the  former  suggesting  to  Coleridge  the 
Lay  of  the  Ancient  Mariner,  and  the  latter  to  Defoe  The 
Life  and  Strange  Surprising  Adventures  of  Robinson  Crusoe, 
of  York,  Mariner. 

The  merchants  of  Bristol  sent  into  the  South  sea  in  1708 
the  ships  Duke  and  Duchess.  Woodes  Rogers  commander,  and 
William  Dampier  first  pilot.  A  mutiny  being  quelled  and 
shipwreck  narrowly  averted,  they  came  to  Juan  Fernandez 
island,  and  there  found  and  rescued  Alexander  Selkirk,  for 
seven  score  years  held  to  be  the  only  true  and  genuine  Robin- 
son Crusoe. 

Off  the  coast  of  Chili  are  situated  these  islands  of  Juan  Fer- 
nandez, so  called  from  a  Spanish  navigator  of  that  name  who 
in  1574  discovered  them;  and  who  discovered  further  that  the 
south  winds  along  shore  did  not  prevail  very  far  out  at  sea. 
This  enabled  him  to  make  voyages  between  Chili  and  Peru  so 
much  quicker  than  others,  that  he  was  seized  and  imprisoned 
for  sorcery,  but  was  released  on  making  explanation.  So 
charmed  by  the  beauty  of  these  isles  was  the  discoverer,  that 
he  asked  and  obtained  a  grant  of  them  from  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment, and  proceeded  to  stock  them  with  pigs  and  goats, 
whose  progeny  were  found  there  by  Alexander  Selkirk  and 
others,  and  played  conspicuous  parts  in  the  tales  of  the  buc- 
caneers, and  in  the  true  story  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  The 
larger  of  these  isles  is  fourteen  miles  long  and  four  miles  wide. 

480 


CRUSOE    ISLAND  481 

It  is  rocky,  with  shrubby  vegetation,  and  has  one  principal 
valley  into  which  flow  several  small  streams.  There  were 
once  here  larger  trees,  and  merchantable  sandal-wood,  and 
about  the  borders  sea-elephants  and  seals.  Pirates  and  navi- 
gators called  at  this  island  occasionally,  and  found  swine,  as 
many  as  they  could  use.  The  buccaneer  Sharp  was  here  in 
1668,  and  Dampier  in  1700. 

Alexander  Selkirk,  a  somewhat  disreputable  son  of  a  Scotch 
shoemaker,  went  to  sea  in  his  youth,  joined  a  piratical  expedi- 
tion to  the  Pacific,  and  became  sailing  master  in  the  galley 
Cinque  Porte.  Quarrelling  with  the  captain,  at  his  own  re- 
quest he  was  in  1704  left  on  the  Juan  Fernandez  island, 
where  he  remained  in  solitude  for  four  years  and  four 
months,  when  he  was  rescued  by  Captain  Woodes  Rogers,  and 
made  first  mate  of  the  Duke,  and  afterward  master  of  a  prize 
ship. 

Rogers  published  an  account  of  his  voyage,  in  which  he 
speaks  of  Selkirk  and  his  rescue.  Steele  saw  Selkirk  and 
published  an  account  of  his  adventure  in  1713.  It  is  possi- 
ble that  Defoe  saw  him.  In  any  event,  Selkirk  returned 
home  in  1712,  and  in  1719  Defoe  published  his  Adventures 
of  Robinson  Crusoe,  written. by  himself,  which  became  imme- 
diately popular,  and  has  so  remained  to  this  day.  Some  said 
that  it  had  been  written  by  Lord  Oxford  in  the  Tower,  others 
pronounced  it  a  piracy  from  Selkirk's  papers.  Yet  it  was  far 
enough  from  fact  to  be  good  fiction,  and  far  enough  from  or- 
dinary fiction  to  live  forever. 

In  a  gap  among  the  rocks,  where  may  be  had  commanding 
views  at  once  of  the  island  and  of  the  surrounding  sea,  a  tablet 
was  erected  in  1868  by  the  officers  of  the  British  ship  Topaze, 
on  which  was  inscribed  the  words  *  Selkirk's  Lookout/  the 
supposition  being  that  as  the  weary  days  and  months  and 
years  rolled  round  the  sailor  had  here  watched  for  a  coming 
vessel;  for  although  he  had  been  put  ashore  at  his  own  re- 
quest, he  repented  before  the  ship  sailed,  and  begged  to  be 
taken  back,  but  his  request  was  refused. 

Crusoe,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  wrecked  from  a  vessel 
on  its  way  from  Brazil  to  the  coast  of  Africa  for  slaves,  and 
his  island  was  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  Orinoco,  very  far 
from  Selkirk's  island  on  the  other  side  of  the  continent.  But 
it  was  Crusoe's  story  Defoe  was  telling,  and  not  Selkirk's,  and 


48-2  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

it  suited  his  purpose  equally  well,  whether  the  island  was  in 
the  Atlantic  or  in  the  Pacific  ocean.  And  he  "  lived  eight 
and  twenty  years  all  alone  "  in  this  uninhabited  island,  did 
Crusoe,  and  "  he  was  at  last  as  strangely  delivered  by  pyrates". 

Crusoe  was  not  long  in  finding  the  goats,  and  in  killing  and 
skinning  some  of  them.  He  found  also  turtles,  fowls,  and 
other  animals  good  for  food;  likewise  oranges,  lemons,  and 
grapes,  cocoa  and  citron,  besides  other  plants  and  trees  not 
usually  found  on  a  desert  island.  It  is  only  when  we  consider 
the  vast  distance  between  the  real  and  the  hypothetical  Cru- 
soe island,  that  we  are  able  to  understand  why  Defoe  neg- 
lected to  feed  his  hero  on  pig  as  well  as  goat,  for  from  all  ac- 
counts of  the  buccaneers  and  navigators  since  the  days  of 
Juan  Fernandez,  the  island  has  swarmed  with  swine.  But 
then  this  was  Crusoe's  island  and  not  Selkirk's;  and  who 
knows  if  Crusoe  was  Selkirk  at  all,  but  simply  Eobinson  Cru- 
soe, his  book  written  by  himself. 

Several,  indeed,  have  been  the  occupants  of  this  romantic 
solitude  at  various  times,  any  one  of  whom  might  serve  as  a 
model  for  Defoe's  adventurer.  Among  others  was  a  native 
of  the  Mosquito  coast,  called  William,  left  there  by  Watling 
in  1680,  and  rescued  by  Dampier  three  years  afterward.  "  At 
the  time  William  was  abandoned  "  it  is  said,  "  he  had  with 
him  in  the  woods  his  gun  and  knife,  and  a  small  quantity  of 
powder  and  shot.  As  soon  as  his  ammunition  was  expended, 
by  notching  his  knife  into  a  saw  he  cut  up  the  barrel  of  his 
gun  into  pieces,  which  he  converted  into  harpoons,  lances, 
and  a  long  knife.  To  accomplish  this  he  struck  fire  with  his 
gun-flint  and  a  piece  of  the  barrel  of  his  gun,  which  he  hard- 
ened for  this  purpose  in  a  way  which  he  had  seen  practised  by 
the  buccaneers.  In  this  fire  he  heated  his  pieces  of  iron, 
hammered  them  out  with  stones,  sawed  them  with  his  jagged 
knife,  or  ground  them  to  an  edge,  and  tempered  them,  which 
was  no  more  than  these  Mosquito-men  were  accustomed  to  do 
in  their  own  country,  where  they  made  their  own  fishing  and 
striking  instruments  without  either  forge  or  anvil,  though 
they  spend  a  great  deal  of  time  about  it.  Thus  furnished, 
William  supplied  himself  with  goat-flesh  and  fish,  for  till  his 
instruments  were  formed  he  had  been  compelled  to  eat  seal. 
He  built  his  house  about  half  a  mile  from  the  shore,  and 
lined  it  snugly  with  goat-skins,  with  which  he  also  spread  his 


CRUSOE    ISLAND  483 

couch,  or  barbecue,  which  was  raised  two  feet  from  the  floor. 
As  his  clothes  were  out  he  supplied  this  want  also  with  goat- 
skins, and  when  first  seen  he  wore  nothing  but  a. goat- 
skin about  his  waist.  Though  the  Spaniards,  who  had 
learned  that  a  Mosquito-man  was  left  here,  had  looked  for 
William  several  times,  he  had  always  by  retiring  to  a  secret 
place  contrived  to  elude  their  search/' 

William  had  not  been  intentionally  abandoned.  While 
Captain  Watling  was  supplying  his  ship  with  necessary  arti- 
cles from  the  shore,  he  was  surprised  by  the  Spaniards  and 
obliged  to  set  sail  immediately,  unable  to  recall  William,  who 
was  absent  at  the  time  hunting.  On  board  Dampier's  ship  at 
the  time  of  the  rescue  was  another  Mosquito-man,  named 
Robin,  an  old  friend  of  William,  and  their  meeting  under  the 
peculiar  circumstances  was  a  sight  to  behold.  When  Robin 
leaped  from  his  boat  to  the  shore  there  stood  William  trem- 
bling between  fear  and  joy,  fear  lest  this  should  be  a  repeti- 
tion of  his  so  frequent  dreams,  and  joy  that  deliverance  had 
indeed  come.  Three  goats  William  had  killed  and  cooked 
with  leaves  from  the  cabbage-tree,  so  that  a  feast  for  his  deliv- 
erers might  be  ready,  for  while  yet  a  long  way  off  he  knew  the 
ship  to  be  English,  and  that  the  day  of  his  deliverance  was  at 
hand. 

Le  Maire  and  Schouten  were  at  the  Juan  Fernandez  isl- 
ands in  their  voyage  round  the  world  in  1616.  "A  boat  was 
sent  ashore,"  the  logbook  says.  "  Some  fresh  water  was  taken 
off,  and  two  tons  of  fish  were  caught  with  hooks  and  lines,  the 
bait  being  taken  as  fast  as  it  could  be  thrown  into  the  water; 
so  that  the  fishermen  continually  without  ceasing  did  nothing 
but  draw  up  fish,  mostly  bream,  and  corcobados,  which  are 
fish  with  crooked  backs.  Hogs,  goats,  and  other  animals 
were  seen  in  the  woods,  but  none  were  taken." 

The  Nassau  fleet,  fitted  out  in  1624,  in  Holland,  for  an  ex- 
pedition against  Peru,  and  commanded  by  Jacob  1'Heremite, 
had  also  its  experience  at  the  Juan  Fernandez  islands,  which 
seem  to  occupy  so  large  a  space  in  the  romantic  and  tragic 
which  fill  the  narratives  of  adventurers  in  these  parts  for  sev- 
eral centuries.  "  Thousands  of  sea  lions  and  seals,"  the 
journal  states,  "  lay  in  the  daytime  on  the  shore  to  enjoy  bask- 
ing in  the  sun.  The  seamen  killed  great  numbers  of  them, 
some  to  eat  and  some  by  way  of  diversion,  which  was  attended 


484  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

by  merited  inconvenience;  for  in  a  short  time  those  which  lay 
on  the  shore  became  putrid,  and  infected  the  air  to  such  a  de- 
gree that  the  people  of  the  ships  scarcely  dared  venture  to 
land.  The  flesh  of  the  sea-lion  when  cooked  was  compared 
to  meat  twice  roasted.  Some  of  the  men  thought  that  when 
the  fat  was  cut  off  it  was  not  inferior  to  mutton;  others  would 
not  eat  it.  There  were  goats  on  the  island,  but  difficult  to 
approach,  and  thought  not  to  be  so  well  tasted  as  those  on  the 
island  St  Vincent.  Among  the  trees'  were  some  like  the  elm, 
very  good  for  making  sheaves  to  blocks;  there  were  other  trees 
fit  for  carpenter's  work;  but  none  were  seen  tall  enough  for 
ship's  topmast.  Sandal-wood  was  growing  in  great  quantity, 
of  an  inferior  quality  to  the  sandal-wood  of  Timor,  and  near 
the  bay  were  some  wild  quince  trees.  Three  soldiers  and 
three  gunners  of  the  vice-admiral's  ship  remained  on  the  isl- 
and by  their  own  will,  refusing  to  serve  longer  in  the  fleet." 

A  Dutch  expedition  against  Peru  in  those  days  did  not  im- 
ply attempted  conquest  of  the  country,  but  simply  capture  of 
treasure.  Coming  in  sight  of  the  Peruvian  coast,  the  narra- 
tive of  the  Nassau  fleet  goes  on  to  state:  "  They  were  nearly 
abreast  of  Callao,  at  which  time  they  took  a  small  bark  with  a 
crew  of  eleven  men,  four  of  whom  were  Spaniards,  the  rest 
Indians  and  negroes.  From  these  people  the  admiral  re- 
ceived the  unwelcome  intelligence  that  on  the  preceding  Fri- 
day the  treasure  fleet,  consisting  of  five  ships  richly  laden,  had 
sailed  from  the  road  of  Callao  for  Panama.  The  Spanish  ad- 
miral in  a  ship  of  800  tons  burthen,  mounting  40  guns,  did 
not  sail  with  the  treasure  fleet,  but  with  two  smaller  ships  of 
war,  and  was  still  in  Callao  road,  where  also  a  number  of  mer- 
chant vessels  were  lying.  It  was  likewise  learnt  that  the  mil- 
itary force  of  the  Spaniards  at  Callao  was  not  more  than  300 
soldiers,  for  that  two  companies  of  their  best  troops  had  been 
sent  with  the  treasure."  The  question  now  was,  Should  they 
pursue  the  galleons  to  Panama,  or  land  and  attack  Callao? 
They  determined  on  the  latter  course.  The  attempt  was 
made,  and  the  Spaniards  drove  them  back.  The  Dutchmen 
were  stupid.  There  were  fifty  merchant  vessels  in  the  har- 
bor, and  to  these  they  set  fire,  instead  of  cutting  them  adrift 
and  securing  the  plunder  they  seemed  so  eager  for.  Soon 
afterward  the  admiral  died  from  illness;  the  expedition  on  the 
whole  proved  a  failure,  save  for  the  discovery  of  Nassau  bay, 
and  the  knowledge  obtained  of  Cape  Horn. 


CRUSOE    ISLAND  485 

In  1725  was  published  in  London  A  Neic  Voyage  round  the 
World,  by  a  Course  never  sailed  before,  by  Daniel  Defoe. 
In  this  ideal  tour  of  circumnavigation,  trade,  and  adventure, 
the  alleged  route  was  east  round  the  cape  of  Good  Hope  to 
India  and  China,  thence  across  the  Pacific  to  America,  and 
round  Cape  Horn  to  Brazil  and  England.  The  opposite  was 
the  usual  course,  English  goods  being  more  suitable  for  the 
South  American  market,  and  American  products  for  China, 
and  Chinese  products  for  India  and  Europe,  than  vice  versa. 
But  the  author  of  this  work  attempts  to  show  the  reverse  to  be 
true,  which  indeed  is  the  raison  d'etre  of  his  book. 

The  "  New  Voyage "  purports  to  have  been  made  from 
PJngland  in  1714-17,  by  merchants,  for  purposes  of  trade  and 
discovery.  As  England  was  then  at  war  with  France  and 
Spain,  or  supposed  to  be,  and  France  then  had  free  trade  in 
the  South  sea  which  was  very  profitable,  they  took  with  them 
a  French  captain,  and  some  French  and  Dutch  sailors,  so  that 
they  might  be  friends  or  enemies  at  pleasure  with  any  whom 
they  might  meet.  If  they  wished  to  trade  in  a  Spanish  for- 
eign port,  which  was  a  thing  forbidden  to  foreigners,  they 
were  French,  and  employed  French  savoir-faire  to  accomplish 
their  purpose;  in  the  East  Indies,  and  at  the  English  or  Dutch 
settlements,  they  were  Flemish;  when  they  seized  a  Spanish 
ship,  they  showed  letters  of  marque  from  England,  and  if 
peace  had  been  declared  they  knew  or  cared  nothing  about  it. 
They  had  on  board  a  rich  cargo  of  British  manufactured 
goods  suitable  for  the  Spanish  trade  at  the  Philippine  islands 
and  in  America,  and  which  they  proposed  to  keep  for  those 
countries.  At  this  time  it  was  imposed  that  all  European 
goods  for  the  Philippine  islands  should  be  conveyed  in  Span- 
ish vessels  from  Acapulco,  brought  thither, — English  goods 
from  England  to  Cadiz,  from  Cadiz  by  the  Spanish  galleons 
to  Portobello,  across  the  Isthmus  from  Portobello  to  Panama 
on  pack-mules,  and  from  Panama  to  Acapulco  in  Spanish 
ships  again,  and  thence  in  the  regular  running  galleons 
to  Manila;  so  that  by  the  time  the  goods  had  paid  these  sev- 
eral freight  charges,  and  customs  dues,  and  commissions  to 
forwarders,  and  profits  to  merchants  to  the  several  ports,  the 
consumer  at  the  Spice  islands  had  several  hundred  per  cent 
advance  on  the  original  cost  to  pay. 

I  have  no  intention  of  going-  into  details  over  this  imagi- 


486  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

nary  voyage,  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  managing  merchant  on 
board  transacted  no  business  to  speak  of  at  Madagascar,  Cey- 
lon, or  Borneo,  where  he  touched  for  water  and  food-supplies, 
and  so  arrived  with  cargo  unbroken  at  Manila,  where  he  was 
received  as  French  with  every  civility.  By  means  of  judi- 
cious gifts  to  the  governor  and  chief  officers,  Spanish  honor 
was  reconciled  to  the  illicit  traffic.  A  tempting  display  on 
ship  board  of  European  stuffs,  bales  of  scarlet  woollen  cloth, 
French  druggets,  baize,  and  linen,  besides  French  wines  and 
brandy,  so  excited  the  cupidity  of  all  visitors,  among  whom 
were  officers  and  merchants,  that  the  whole  cargo  was  soon 
disposed  of,  at  six  times  the  cost,  for  gold  coin  and  silver 
pieces  of  eight.  For  return  cargo  the  Englishman  bought 
at  very  low  prices  tons  of  cloves  and  nutmegs,  bales  of  China 
silks,  diamonds,  and  pearls,  rice,  lacquered  cabinets,  and  other 
like  oriental  wares,  most  of  which  were  suitable  for  the  mar- 
ket in  Peru,  whither  the  merchant  was  next  bound.  Touch- 
ing at  the  Ladrones  for  fresh  water,  hogs,  fowls,  roots,  and 
anti-scurvy  greens,  the  navigators  thought  to  sail  north  far 
enough  to  pass  in  between  the  island  of  California  and  the 
main  land  of  New  Spain,  if  peradventure  they  might  meet 
with  new  discoveries.  The  Hawaiian  islands  lay  directly  in 
their  path,  and  had  Cook  been  a  half  century  earlier  in  find- 
ing them,  Defoe  would  surely  have  rested  and  refreshed  hia 
pilgrims  at  this  point;  but  fearing  lest  California  should  not 
prove  to  be  an  island,  and  that  when  they  reached  Hudson 
bay  they  should  find  no  passage  into  the  North  sea,  and  so 
spoil  the  voyage  and  perish  with  hunger  and  cold,  they  con- 
cluded to  resign  themselves  to  the  softer  regions  of  the  south, 
and  so  found  their  way  to  the  American  coast,  and  thence 
home  to  England,  after  refitting  at  the  alleged  Crusoe  island 
of  Juan  Fernandez. 

George  Shelvocke  made  a  voyage  round  the  world  by  way 
of  the  great  South  sea  during  the  years  1719  to  1722,  in  the 
ship  Speedwell,  of  London,  of  24  guns  and  100  men, — "  under 
his  majesty's  commission  to  cruise  on  the  Spaniards  in  the 
late  war  with  the  Spanish  crown, — till  she  was  cast  away  on 
the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez;  afterwards  continued  in  the 
Recovery,  Jesus  Maria,  and  Sacra  Familia."  This  from  the 
title-page  of  his  published  account,  the  track  in  the  Pacific 
on  his  map  being  along  the  coast  to  California,  which  he  rep- 


CRUSOE    ISLAND  487 

resents  as  an  island,  with  nothing  beyond,  and  thence  across 
the  ocean  to  the  Philippines,  and  home  by  way  of  Good  Hope. 
Passing  through  the  strait  of  Magellan,  Shelvocke  took  in 
fresh  supplies  at  Chiloe  and  proceeded  to  Concepcion,  capt- 
uring and  burning  ships,  and  spreading  terror  along  the 
shore.  Then  he  made  for  Juan  Fernandez,  there  to  watch 
the  Concepcion,  Valparaiso,  and  Coquimbo  traders;  but  he 
wrecked  his  vessel  instead,  and  so  supplied  fresh  material  for 
a  version  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  The  wreck  of  the  Speedwell 
occurred  on  the  25th  of  May  1720,  and  Shelvocke's  narrative 
was  published  in  London,  in  1726. 

Regarding  the  shipwreck  Shelvocke  relates:  "  A  hard  gale 
of  wind  came  out  of  the  sea  upon  us — a  thing  very  uncom- 
mon as  has  been  reported — and  brought  in  a  great  tumbling 
swell,  so  that  in  a  few  hours  our  cable — which  was  never  wet 
before — parted,  a  dismal  accident  this,  there  being  no  means 
to  be  used,  or  the  least  prospect  of  avoiding  immediate  de- 
struction. But  providence  interposed  in  our  behalf  so  far, 
that  if  we  had  struck  but  a  cables  length  farther  to  the  East- 
ward, or  Westward  of  the  place  where  we  did,  we  must  inevi- 
tably have  perish'd.  As  soon  as  she  touch'd  the  rocks  we 
were  obliged  to  hold  fast  by  some  part,  or  other,  of  the  ship, 
otherwise  the  violence  of  the  shocks  she  had  in  striking, 
might  have  been  sufficient  to  have  thrown  us  all  out  of  her, 
into  the  sea.  Our  main-mast,  fore-mast,  and  mizen-top-mast 
went  altogether.  In  short  words  can't  express  the  wretched 
condition  we  were  in,  or  the  surprise  we  were  under  of  being 
so  unfortunately  shipwreck'd,  or  the  dread  we  had  upon  us 
of  starving  on  the  uninhabited  Isle  we  were  thrown  upon,  in 
case  we  should  escape  the  sea.  We  had  reflections  enough  to 
depress  our  spirits;  but  the  work  we  had  in  hand,  which  was 
no  less  than  to  endeavor  the  saving  of  our  lives, — which  were 
as  yet  in  great  suspense, — made  every  body  active. 

"  It  was  happy  for  us  that  our  masts  fell  all  over  the  off  side, 
which  gave  us  room  to  make  a  raft;  by  which  means — and 
having  hands  ashore  who  had  been  there  before  the  wind  came 
on,  and  who  came  down  to  the  beach  to  assist  us — we  were  all 
saved  except  one  man;  I  myself  made  a  very  narrow  escape. 
In  this  surprise  the  first  thing  I  took  care  of  was  my  Commis- 
sion, and  remembering  the  powder  to  be  uppermost  in  the 
bread-room,  I  got  most  of  it  up,  with  about  7  or  8  bags  of 


488  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

bread;  these  we  secured  to  windward  and  saved;  the  ship  not 
coming  to  pieces  immediately,  in  a  few  minutes  after  she  first 
struck  she  was  full  of  water,  so  that  the  Surgeon's  chest  being 
stow'd  below,  there  was  little  or  nothing  preserved  out  of 
that,  we  saved  2  or  3  compasses,  and  some  of  our  mathemati- 
cal Instruments  and  Books.  Before  it  was  quite  dark  we 
were  all  ashore,  in  a  very  wet  uncomfortable  condition,  no 
place  to  have  recourse  to  for  shelter  from  the  boisterous  wind 
and  rain  except  the  trees;  nothing  to  cheer  up  our  spirits. after 
the  fatigue  and  hazard  in  getting  from  the  wreck  to  the  rocks, 
and  no  other  prospect,  but  that,  after  having  suffer'd  much 
in  this  uninhabited  place,  we  might  in  process  of  time,  be 
taken  away  by  some  ship  or  other.  Our  ears  were  now  saluted 
by  the  melancholy  bowlings  of  inumerable  Seals  on  the 
beach,  who  lay  so  thick  that  we  were  obliged  to  clear  our  way 
of  them  as  we  went  along,  and  nothing  presented  itself  to  our 
sight  but  rocky  precipices,  inhospitable  woods,  dropping  with 
the  rain,  lofty  mountains  whose  tops  were  hid  by  thick  clouds, 
and  a  tempestuous  sea,  which  had  reduced  us  to  the  low  state 
we  were  now  in.  Thus  were  we  without  any  one  thing  neces- 
sary in  life,  not  so  much  as  a  seat  to  sit  upon  to  rest  our  limbs, 
except  the  cold  wet  ground,  which  as  far  as  we  could  see,  was 
also  to  be  our  bed  and  pillow,  and  proved  to  be  so. 

"That  evening  all  the  officers  came  to  bear  me  company 
and  to  consult  how  we  should  contrive  to  get  some  necessaries 
out  of  the  wreck,  if  she  was  not  quite  in  pieces  by  the  next 
morning,  and  came  to  a  resolution  of  losing  no  time  in  en- 
deavoring to  recover  what  we  could  out  of  the  wreck;  and 
having,  by  this  time,  lighted  a  fire,  wrapt  themselves  up  in 
what  they  could  get,  laid  round  it,  and  notwithstanding  the 
badness  of  the  weather,  slept  very  soundly,  and,  the  next 
morning,  getting  up  with  the  first  glimpse  of  day-light, 
look'd  at  each  other  like  men  awaken'd  out  of  a  dream;  so 
great,  and  so  sudden  was  the  melancholy  change  of  our  con- 
dition, that  we  could  scarcely  believe  our  senses. 

"  I  went  immediately  among  the  people,  to  set  them  to 
work  in  doing  what  we  proposed  the  night  before;  but  they 
were  so  scatter'd,  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  getting 
them  all  to-gether;  so  that,  in  short,  all  opportunities  were  lost 
of  regaining  any  thing  but  some  of  our  small  arms  which  were 
fish'd  up;  not  only  which,  but  also  our  beef  and  pork  might 


CRUSOE    ISLAND  489 

have  been  retrieved  could  I  have  prevail'd  on  them  to  set 
about  their  work  in  earnest;  but  instead  of  that  they  were  em- 
ploy'd  in  building  tents,  and  making  other  preparation  to 
settle  themselves  here;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  the  wreck  was 
entirely  destroy'd,  and  every  thing  that  was  in  her  lost,  except 
one  cask  of  beef  and  one  of  Farina  de  Pao,  which  were  wash'd 
whole  on  the  strand.  Thus  were  our  provisions  of  all  kinds 
irrecoverably  gone,  and  whatever  else  might  have  been  of  use 
to  us,  except  what  I  have  already  mention'd.  I  should  have 
observed,  that  I  saved  1100  dollars  belonging  to  the  Gentle- 
men Owners,  which  were  kept  in  my  chest  in  the  great  cabin; 
the  rest  being  in  the  bottom  of  the  bread-room  for  security 
could  not  possibly  be  come  at.  I  need  not  say  how  disconso- 
late my  reflections  were  on  this  sad  accident,  which  had  as  it 
were  thrown  us  out  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  without  any 
thing  to  support  us  but  the  uncertain  products  of  a  desolate 
uncultivated  Island,  situated — I  must  justly  say — in  the  re- 
motest part  of  the  earth;  and,  at  least,  90  leagues  distant  from 
the  continent  of  Chili,  which  was  in  the  possession  of  the 
Creolian  Spaniards,  who  have  always  been  remarkable  for 
their  ungenerous  treatment  of  their  enemies,  and  we  could 
have  no  better  views  at  present  than  of  falling  into  their  hands 
sooner  or  later.  But  since  we  must  now  be  obliged  to  suffer 
all  such  hardships,  as  would  be  consequent  to  our  shipwreck, 
it  behoved  me,  in  the  first  place, — since  it  was  inevitably  cer- 
tain that  our  stay  here  would  be  very  long — to  use  such  means 
as  offer'd  towards  the  preservation  of  our  healths,  and  to  think 
of  some  economy  to  be  observ'd  amongst  the  people  in  rela- 
tion to  the  distribution  of  such  quantities  of  provisions  as 
should,  from  time  to  time  be  got. 

"  I  took  some  pains  in  finding  out  a  convenient  place  to 
set  up  my  tent;  in  this  I  not  only  regarded  the  situation,  in 
respect  to  the  weather,  but  also  the  security  of  it  being  easily 
surprised  by  the  enemy,  and,  at  length,  found  comodious  spot 
of  ground,  not  half  a  mile  from  the  sea,  and  a  fine  run  of 
water  within  a  stones  cast  on  each  side  of  it,  with  firing  near 
at  hand  and  trees  proper  for  building  our  dwellings;  the  peo- 
ple settled  within  call  about  me  in  as  good  a  manner  as  they 
could,  and  having  a  cold  season  coming  on,  some  of  them 
thatch'd  their  dwellings,  and  others  cover'd  them  with  skins 
of  Seals  and  Sea-lions,  whilst  others  got  up  water-huts,  and 


490  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

slept  in  them  under  the  cover  of  a  tree.  Having  thus  secur'd 
ourselves  as  well  as  possible  against  the  inclemency  of  the  ap- 
proaching winter,  we  used  to  pass  our  evenings  in  making  a 
great  fire  before  my  tent,  round  which  my  Officers,  in  general, 
assembled  employing  themselves  quietly  in  roasting  crawfish 
in  the  embers;  some  times  bewailing  our  unhappy  fates,  and 
sinking  into  despair;  at  other  times  feeding  themselves  up 
with  hopes  that  something  might  yet  be  done  to  set  us  afloat 
again.  But  as  words  alone  were  not  sufficient,  I  began  to 
think  it  full  time  to  look  about  me,  to  see  if  it  was  really  prac- 
ticable for  us  to  build  such  a  vessel  as  would  carry  us  from  the 
Islands." 

Building  a  bark,  which  he  called  the  Recovery,  Shelvocke 
proceeded  on  his  voyage,  now  in  a  crippled  condition,  his  men 
reduced  in  number  to  forty,  almost  without  arms  or  ammuni- 
tion, and  in  a  poorly  constructed  boat  which  was  little  better 
than  a  raft;  yet  in  this  plight  they  could  not  pass  a  Spanish 
galleon  without  attempting  her  capture,  fighting  with  bravery 
but  unsuccessfully  one  of  400  tons,  and  one  of  700  tons,  both 
well  armed  and  manned,  and  deeply  laden  with  valuable  car- 
goes. The  next  ship  they  saw  was  the  Jesus  Maria,  200  tons, 
which  they  attacked  with  the  courage  of  despair,  and  were 
surprised  and  delighted  to  see  her  surrender  without  striking 
a  blow.  Shelvocke  would  have  stood  westward  from  Panama 
for  the  Asiatic  coast,  but  for  the  contrary  winds  he  found 
there;  so  he  coasted  Central  America  and  Mexico  to  La  Paz, 
capturing  more  Spanish  ships,  among  others  the  Sacra 
Familia  at  Sonsonate,  and  then  leaving  the  coast  of  America 
forever. 

George  Anson,  later  Lord  Anson,  made  a  voyage  round  the 
world  in  the  years  1740  to  1744,  what  he  saw  in  the  Pacific 
being  told  in  a  portly  quarto  by  Eichard  Walter,  who  puts 
down  California  in  his  chart  as  an  island.  Passing  round 
Cape  Horn,  Anson  coasted  America  to  Acapulco,  and  beyond, 
then  struck  out  across  the  ocean  to  the  Ladrones,  and  back 
to  England  via  Good  Hope.  His  lordship  was  not  above  a 
stroke  of  business  here  and  there,  or  taking  a  purse  if  found 
upon  a  Spanish  vessel.  Sailing  from  St  Helens  in  the  Cen- 
turion with  400  men,  so  wasted  were  they  by  disease  and 
death  during  the  voyage  that  at  the  isles  of  Juan  Fernandez 
there  were  but  about  200  left,  and  these  were  reduced  to  the 


CRUSOE    ISLAND  491 

last  extremity.  This  is  their  account  of  it.  "  Being  now 
nearer  in  with  the  shore,  we  could  discover  that  the  broken 
craggy  precipices,  which  had  appeared  so  unpromising  at  a 
distance,  were  far  from  barren,  being  in  most  places  covered 
with  woods;  and  that  between  them  there  were  everywhere 
interspersed  the  finest  valleys,  clothed  with  a  most  beautiful 
verdure,  and  watered  with  numerous  streams  and  cascades, 
no  valley  of  any  extent  being  unprovided  of  its  proper  rill. 
The  water  too,  as  we  afterward  found,  was  not  inferior  to  any 
we  had  ever  tasted,  and  was  constantly  clear.  The  aspect  of 
this  country  thus  diversified  would  at  all  times  have  been 
extremely  delightful;  but  in  our  distressed  situation,  lan- 
guishing as  we  were  for  the  land  and  its  vegetable  produc- 
tions— an  inclination  constantly  attending  every  stage  of  the 
sea-scurvy, — it  is  scarcely  credible  with  what  eagerness  and 
transport  we  viewed  the  shore,  and  with  how  much  impa- 
tience we  longed  for  the  greens  and  other  refreshments  which 
were  then  in  sight,  and  particularly  the  water;  for  of  this  we 
had  been  confined  to  a  very  sparing  allowance  a  considerable 
time,  and  had  then  but  five  ton  remaining  on  board.  Those 
only  who  have  endured  a  long  series  of  thirst,  and  who  can 
readily  recall  the  desire  and  agitation  which  the  ideas  alone 
of  springs  and  brooks  have  at  that  time  raised  in  them,  can 
judge  of  the  emotion  with  which  we  eyed  a  large  cascade  of 
the  most  transparent  water,  which  poured  itself  from  a  rock 
near  a  hundred  feet  high  into  the  sea,  at  a  small  distance  from 
the  ship.  Even  those  amongst  the  diseased,  who  were  not  in 
the  very  last  stages  of  the  distemper,  though  they  had  been 
long  confined  to  their  hammocks,  exerted  the  small  remains 
of  strength  that  were  left  them,  and  crawled  up  to  the  deck 
to  feast  themselves  with  this  reviving  prospect." 

Capturing  several  vessels  on  the  way,  and  taking  the  town 
of  Paita,  thus  securing  much  booty,  the  loss  of  the  Spaniards 
at  this  one  town  alone  being  in  property  carried  off  or  burned 
by  the  Englishmen  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars,  Anson 
crossed  the  bay  of  Panama  and  came  to  Tuibo,  among  the 
Pearl  islands,  where  he  took  in  wood  and  water,  killed  a  multi- 
tude of  monkeys  for  food,  and  secured  a  two  months'  supply 
of  most  delicious  turtles,  a  food  which  the  Spaniards  never- 
theless used  to  reject  as  poisonous.  Thence  he  hastened  on 
to  Mexico  to  intercept  the  Manila  galleon,  but  failing  to  find 


493  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

her,  after  waiting  some  time  he  sent  a  boat  by  night  into 
Acapulco  harbor  to  see  if  she  had  arrived.  This  boat  capt- 
ured and  brought  back  three  negroes,  who  informed  the  Eng- 
lish commander  that  the  galleon  had  arrived  long  before,  had 
sold  her  cargo,  and  was  about  returning  with  the  money. 
This  report  was  hailed  with  joy  by  the  English,  whose  minds 
and  hearts  had  dwelt  long  and  fondly  on  the  capture  of  one 
or  more  of  these  richly  laden  ships.  But  catching  a  glimpse 
of  the  enemy,  the  Spaniard  remained  in  port.  Anson  then 
thought  to  take  the  town  by  stratagem,  it  being  too  well 
armed  and  fortified  to  storm,  but  plans  for  this  failing  him,  he 
sailed  away  for  Asia.  The  voyage  was  disastrous,  half  the 
crew  of  the  Centurion  being  prostrated  by  scurvy  on  reaching 
the  Ladrones.  Unable  to  abandon  the  hope  of  taking  an- 
other prize,  Anson  refitted  his  ship  on  the  China  coast  and 
sailed  again  for  Acapulco,  meeting  and  capturing  the  desired 
galleon,  which  yielded  in  treasure  alone  nearly  $1,500,000. 
On  reaching  London  the  silver  captured  from  the  Spaniards 
during  this  expedition  amounted  to  $2,000,000,  which  was 
conveyed  from  the  ship  to  the  Tower  in  thirty  wagons. 

Says  the  author  of  Anson's  Voyage  regarding  Juan  Fernan- 
dez island,  "  Former  writers  have  related  that  this  island 
abounded  in  vast  numbers  of  goats;  and  their  accounts  are 
not  to  be  questioned,  this  place  being  the  usual  haunt  of  the 
buccaneers  and  privateers  who  formerly  frequented  those 
seas.  And  there  are  two  instances,  one  of  a  Mosquito  Indian, 
and  the  other  of  Alexander  Selkirk,  a  Scotchman,  who  were 
left  here  by  their  respective  ships,  and  lived  alone  upon  this 
island  for  some  years,  and  consequently  were  no  strangers  to 
its  produce.  Selkirk,  who  was  the  last,  after  a  stay  of  be-> 
tween  four  and  five  years,  was  taken  off  the  place  by  the  Duke 
and  Duchess,  privateers  of  Bristol,  as  may  be  seen  at  large  in 
the  journal  of  their  voyage.  His  manner  of  life  during  his 
solitude  was  in  most  particulars  very  remarkable;  but  there 
is  one  circumstance  he  relates  which  was  so  strangely  verified 
by  our  own  observation  that  I  cannot  help  reciting  it.  He 
tells  us,  amongst  other  things,  that  as  he  often  caught  more 
goats  than  he  wanted,  he  sometimes  marked  their  ears  and  let 
them  go.  This  was  about  thirty-two  years  before  our  arrival 
at  that  island.  Now  it  happened  that  the  first  goat  that  was 
killed  by  our  people  had  his  ears  slit,  whence  we  concluded 


CRUSOE    ISLAND  493 

that  he  had  doubtless  been  formerly  under  the  power  of  Sel- 
kirk. This  was,  indeed,  an  animal  of  most  venerable  aspect, 
dignified  with  an  exceeding  majestic  beard,  and  with  many 
other  symptoms  of  antiquity.  During  our  stay  on  the  island 
we  met  with  others  marked  in  the  same  manner,  all  the  males 
being  distinguished  by  an  exuberance  of  beard,  and  every 
other  characteristic  of  extreme  age." 

And  from  this  so  little  soap,  we  are  said  to  have  the  brilliant 
bubble  Robinson  Crusoe. 

The  last  of  the  Crusoes  to  visit  Juan  Fernandez  island  and 
write  a  book  was  J.  Eoss  Browne,  conspicuous  in  early  Cali- 
fornia gold-digging  times  as  literary  man  and  politician.  It 
happened  in  this  way,  as  the  story-tellers  of  late  remark:  Of 
the  many  "  old  tubs  "  which  drifted  toward  the  Golden  Fleece 
in  1849  was  one,  the  Anteus,  sailing  from  New  York  for  San 
Francisco  in  the  early  spring  of  this  memorable  year.  Upon 
this  craft  was  Browne,  and  perhaps  a  hundred  other  pas- 
sengers, who,  falling  under  the  tyrannies  of  a  brutal  captain, 
rose  and  removed  him,  with,  the  help  of  the  United  States 
consul  at  Eio  de  Janeiro,  who  gave  them  a  new  captain,  with 
whom  they  were  allowed  to  do  much  as  they  pleased,  which 
is  a  feeling  grateful  to  the  independence  of  Americans.  Con- 
tinuing their  way  with  happy  hearts,  being  now  masters  of 
the  master,  they  found  themselves  one  morning  in  May  be- 
calmed, with  the  classic  isle  some  seventy  miles  distant.  Turn- 
ing their  gaze  in  that  direction  they  let  fly  their  imagination, 
those  of  them  who  had  one,  and  beheld  under  the  charm  of 
romance  the  beauty  of  the  place,  likewise  the  stranded  ship, 
and  Robinson,  and  Friday,  the  dog  and  goat  and  all  the  rest, 
and  the  pirate  bands  who  came  after,  and  they  longed  for  a 
revel  and  a  run  ashore.  The  desire  becoming  irrepressible, 
ten  of  them  took  a  boat  and  rowed  away,  not  in  the  least 
fatigued  at  the  start  by  the  thought  of  a  seventy-miles  pull, 
and  as  for  danger,  Robinson's  story  was  enough  of  that. 

Their  intention  was  to  reach  the  island  by  sunset,  make  a 
tent  of  the  boat  sail,  and  in  the  morning  gather  fruit  and  re- 
turn,— a  pretty  plan  but  for  the  unexpected,  coming  in  the 
form  of  head  winds  and  hurricane,  and  a  black  tempestuous 
night  in  an  open  boat,  which  came  near  giving  to  the  island 
ten  dead  Crusoes  "  for  keeps."  But  having  reached  an  offing, 
and  coming  suddenly  in  the  darkness  upon  a  great  ship,  which 


494  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

proved  to  be  the  Brooklyn,  of  New  York,  bound  for  California, 
they  emerged  from  the  horrors  of  the  night,  and  after  a  brief 
enjoyment  of  the  hospitality  of  their  fellow  Argonauts,  they 
went  ashore  to  finish  their  play  of  Crusoe. 

And  here  I  give  the  author  of  Crusoe's  Island  an  opportu- 
nity to  unburden  himself,  which  I  regard  his  fair  and  rightful 
due.  "  Never  shall  I  forget  the  strange  delight,"  he  says, 
"  with  which  I  gazed  upon  that  isle  of  romance,  the  unfeigned 
rapture  I  felt  in  exploring  that  miniature  world  in  the  desert 
of  waters,  so  fraught  with  the  associations  of  youth,  so  remote 
from  the  ordinary  realities  of  life,  the  actual  embodiment  of 
the  most  absorbing,  most  fascinating  of  all  my  dreams  of 
fancy.  Many  lands  have  I  seen,  many  glens  of  utopian  loveli- 
ness, but  none  like  this  in  variety  of  outline  and  undefinable 
richness  of  coloring;  nothing  so  dream-like,  so  wrapped  in 
illusion.  Great  peaks  of  reddish  rock  seemed  to  pierce  the 
sky  wherever  I  looked;  a  thousand  rugged  ridges  awept  up- 
ward toward  the  centre  in  a  perfect  maze  of  enchantment.  It 
was  all  wild,  fascinating,  and  unreal.  The  sides  of  the  moun- 
tains were  covered  with  patches  of  rich  grass,  natural  fields  of 
oats,  and  groves  of  myrtle  and  pimento.  Fields  of  verdure 
covered  the  ravines;  ruined  and  moss-covered  walls  were 
scattered  over  each  eminence;  and  the  straw  huts  of  the  in- 
habitants were  almost  inbosomed  in  trees  in  the  midst  of  the 
valley,  and  jets  of  smoke  arose  out  of  the  groves  and  floated 
off  gently  in  the  calm  air  of  the  morning.  In  all  the  shore 
but  one  spot,  a  single  opening  among  the  rocks,  seemed  ac- 
cessible to  man.  The  rest  of  the  coast  within  view  consists  of 
fearful  cliffs  overhanging  the  water,  the  ridges  from  which 
slope  upward  as  they  recede  inland,  forming  a  variety  of 
smaller  valleys  above,  which  are  strangely  diversified  with 
wood  and  grass,  and  golden  fields  of  wild  oats.  The  waters  of 
the  bay  are  of  crystal  clearness,  and  alive  with  fish  and  vari- 
ous kinds  of  marine  animals.  Then  think  without  a  smile  of 
disdain  what  a  thrill  of  delight  ran  through  my  blood  as  I 
pressed  my  feet  for  the  first  time  upon  the  fresh  sod  of  Juan 
Fernandez!  Yes,  here  was  verily  the  land  of  Robinson  Crusoe; 
here  in  one  of  these  secluded  glens  stood  his  rustic  castle; 
here  he  fed  his  goats  and  held  converse  with  his  faithful  pets; 
here  he  found  consolation  in  the  devotion  of  a  new  friend, 
his  true  and  honest  man  Friday.  Pardon  the  fondness  with 


CEUSOE    ISLAND  495 

which  I  linger  upon  these  recollections,  for  I,  who  had  always 
regarded  Robinson  Crusoe  as  the  most  truthful  and  the  very 
sublimest  of  adventurers,  was  now  the  entranced  beholder  of 
his  abiding  place,  walking,  breathing,  thinking,  and  seeing  on 
the  very  spot!  There  was  no  fancy  about  it,  not  the  least;  it 
was  a  palpable  reality.  Talk  of  gold;  why  I  tell  you,  my 
friends,  all  the  gold  of  California  was  not  worth  the  ecstatic 
bliss  of  that  moment!  " 

All  which  is  eloquent  and  fine;  we  must  remember,  how- 
ever, that  this  was  the  first  of  these  far  southern  isles  Mr 
Browne  had  ever  seen;  and  also  how  fortunate  he  was  to  have 
obtained  so  much  at  so  little  cost, — only  the  perils  of  a  night 
and  no  money  payment  at  all;  nor  was  the  extent  of  gold  in 
California  then  known;  neither  the  extent  of  it,  nor  the 
amount  of  ecstatic  bliss  it  would  buy. 

Returning  to  prose  and  reality,  we  find,  by  Mr  Browne's 
true  and  faithful  narrative,  on  the  island  at  this  time,  the  re- 
mains of  fortifications  and  convict  prison  built  by  the  Chilians 
in  1767,  the  walls  of  which  had  been  thrown  down  by  an 
earthquake  in  1835.  Previous  to  this  calamity  the  convicts 
had  broken  prison,  killed  their  keepers  and  fled.  A  penal 
colony  was  established  here  by  the  Chilian  government  in 
1819.  Inhabiting  the  island  at  this  time  were  one  American 
and  five  Chilian  families,  living  in  huts  made  of  the  straw  of 
wild  oats,  and  embedded  in  foliage,  while  to  each  was  attached 
a  small  piece  of  land  fenced  with  stone  and  brushwood.  Here 
fruits,  vines,  and  vegetables  were  grown,  while  native  grass 
and  grain  were  abundant  everywhere.  Whalers  still  touched 
at  these  islands,  and  California  vessels,  their  purchase  of  sup- 
plies giving  good  profits  to  the  occupants  of  the  land.  The 
good  people  will  also  show  you,  for  a  consideration,  the  veri- 
table cave  of  the  renowned  Robinson,  in  a  bluff  of  volcanic 
rock,  with  cupboards  cut  into  the  sides,  and  spikes  for  gun- 
rests;  likewise  a  stone  oven,  some  broken  pottery,  and  frag- 
ments of  rusty  iron,  all  relics  of  Robinson.  Here  cliffs  and 
springs,  there  goat-paths  and  goats,  buzzards  and  song  birds, 
all  Robinson's,  all  save  a  stalactite  grotto  opening  to  the 
ocean,  which  was  called  the  cave  of  the  buccaneers. 

"  I  could  never  think  of  Juan  Fernandez  "  said  Browne,  as 
he  concluded  his  narrative,  "  without  a  strong  desire  to  be 


496  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

shipwrecked  there,  and  spend  the  remainder  of  my  days  dressed 
in  goatskins,  rambling  about  the  cliffs  and  hunting  wild  goats." 

Which  harmless  ambition  could  not  have  been  so  very  dif- 
ficult of  attainment;  but  it  appears  the  versatile  Browne  pre- 
ferred after  all  to  go  as  United  States  minister  to  China. 

In  conclusion  I  may  say  that  all  this  about  a  Crusoe  Island 
in  the  Pacific,  regarded  as  a  myth  of  some  two  hundred  years 
standing,  is  very  interesting,  but  like  many  other  myths,  if 
scrutinized  too  closely,  it  vanishes.  Says  William  Lee  in  his 
biography  of  Defoe,  "  It  is  evident  he  acquired  some  inci- 
dents from  Selkirk,  who  lived  four  years  on  Juan  Fernandez, 
but  the  ever-varying  events,  the  useful  and  improving  morali- 
ties, and  the  fascinating  style  are  all  his  own; "  while  the 
author  of  Robinson  Crusoe  himself  says,  "  In  the  gulf  or  mouth 
of  the  mighty  river  Oroonooko  our  island  lay,  which  I  per- 
ceived to  the  west  and  northwest  was  the  great  Island  Trini- 
dad, on  the  north  point  of  the  mouth  of  that  river.  I  asked 
Friday  a  thousand  questions  about  the  country,  its  inhabitants, 
the  sea,  the  coast,  and  what  nations  were  there,  but  could 
get  no  other  name  but  Caribs,  from  whence  I  easily  under- 
stood that  these  were  the  Caribbees."  Thus  is  clearly  shown 
that  the  true  island  of  Crusoe  is  Tobago,  information  concern- 
ing which  Defoe  easily  obtained  from  pirates  and  others,  and 
on  which  were  likewise  goats,  which  indeed  were  common 
to  most  of  the  islands  on  either  side  of  South  America. 


CHAPTEK    XX 

LEAVES   FROM   THE   LOG   BOOKS   OF   THE   PIRATES 

THERE  are  various  kinds  of  pirates,  sea  pirates  and  land 
pirates,  sea  robbers  or  rovers,  buccaneers,  privateers,  fili- 
busters, and  freebooters.  Those  of  whom  I  speak  had  their 
happy  hunting-ground  in  the  West  Indies  during  parts  of  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  with  occasional  expe- 
ditions into  the  South  sea,  both  by  way  of  the  Panama  isthmus 
and  around  Cape  Horn.  There  were  the  Dutch  English 
Portuguese  Italians  and  French,  preying  on  each  other,  and 
all  preying  on  the  Spaniards,  because  the  possessions  of  the 
Spaniards  in  those  days  were  the  broadest  and  richest  of  them 
all,  and  because  the  Spaniards  were  always  at  war  with  some 
one  or  more  of  the  other  nations,  which  served  as  an  excuse 
for  buccaneering,  though  all  were  quite  as  ready  for  highway 
robbery  without  an  excuse. 

The  cruelties  of  the  Spaniards  in  forcing  beyond  their 
strength  and  habits  the  natives  of  Espanola  and  Cuba  to  labor 
in  the  mines  and  on  the  plantations  led  to  their  extermina- 
tion, and  by  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  these  isl- 
ands were  well  nigh  depopulated,  and  the  cattle,  introduced 
from  Europe,  increased  until  immense  herds  covered  the  val- 
leys, so  that  hunting  them  for  the  hides  and  tallow  became 
a  profitable  occupation.  Settlements  and  plantations  of  a 
new  and  peculiar  kind  followed,  to  which  English  and  French 
sailors,  with  their  contraband  goods,  were  always  welcome. 

Among  the  other  industries  here  fostered  was  that  of  pre- 
serving the  flesh  of  the  wild  cattle  by  smoking  and  drying  it; 
the  places  where  this  was  done  were  called  boucans,  the  opera- 
tion boucanning,  and  the  operatives  boucanneers;  so  that 
when  all  these  people  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  took  to  sea- 
roving,  smuggling,  and  pirating,  they  were  thrown  into  the 
one  category  of  buccaneers.  Thus  there  arose  a  fraternity 
of  freebooters,  or  filibusters  as  they  were  also  called,  with 

497 


498  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

Spain  as  their  common  enemy,  though,  as  I  said  before,  they 
had  small  scruples  to  take  a  prize  of  any  nationality,  or  even 
to  fight  each  other. 

A  colony  of  buccaneers  on  the  island  of  St  Christopher,  to 
which  the  governments  of  France  and  England  had  both 
contributed,  was  in  1629  surprised  and  scattered  by  a  Spanish 
fleet  of  thirty-nine  sail,  but  quickly  regained  its  position  upon 
the  departure  of  the  enemy.  The  buccaneers  then  estab- 
lished a  store-house  on  the  island  of  Tortuga,  more  secure 
from  attack  than  St  Christopher,  with  business  headquarters 
at  Santo  Domingo.  In  1638,  while  most  of  the  occupants  of 
the  island  were  absent,  the  Spaniards  attacked  Tortuga,  and 
killed  every  man  there,  but  their  places  were  quickly  filled  by 
others.  At  intervals  the  crown  of  France  claimed  possession 
of  the  piratical  islands,  and  control  of  the  fraternity,  and 
drove  out  the  English,  only  to  be  driven  out  themselves  alter- 
nately by  the  English  and  Spaniards. 

The  buccaneers  had  their  common  law  and  code  of  ethics. 
Women  were  seldom  a  part  of  the  fraternity,  household  duties 
being  performed  by  men.  Courage  and  fidelity  were  the  car- 
dinal virtues,  and  as  death  was  the  penalty  if  captured,  quar- 
ter was  seldom  asked  or  given.  Association  was  voluntary; 
engagement  was  only  for  the  cruise,  and  any  member  might 
quit  the  brotherhood  at  pleasure.  All  fighting  men  might 
attend  councils;  commanders  were  chosen  for  their  ability 
and  bravery,  and  those  who  made  the  leaders  could  unmake 
them.  Duels  were  frequently  resorted  to  for  the  settlement 
of  individual  quarrels;  an  offence  against  the  society  was  pun- 
ished by  death,  abandonment  on  a  deserted  island,  or  it  might 
be  simply  expulsion. 

The  rules  applied  in  privateering  generally  governed  in  the 
division  of  spoils.  The  captain  carpenter  sail-maker  and  sur- 
geon were  first  considered,  the  captain  receiving  five  shares 
and  his  mate  two  shares,  fighting  men  one  share,  boys  half  a 
share.  Then  wounds  were  examined  and  paid  for,  a  right 
arm  being  valued  at  600  pieces  of  eight,  or  six  slaves;  an  eye 
or  a  finger  100  pieces  of  eight,  or  one  slave.  Food  was  held 
in  common,  and  on  a  cruise  consisted  largely  of  pork,  with 
dried  beef  and  salted  turtle,  cassada  maize  and  potatoes,  but 
no  bread.  There  were  two  regular  meals  each  day,  but  any 
member  might  help  himself  to  food  at  pleasure. 


499 

Piety  was  part  of  the  freebooters  stock  in  trade,  though  not 
quite  in  the  same  degree  as  was  the  case  with  the  conquerors. 
The  former  desired  God's  blessing  on  his  enterprise,  and 
prayed  for  it,  saying  mass  now  and  then,  even  carrying  a  priest 
sometimes  for  that  purpose,  as  Francis  Drake  carried  a  chap- 
lain; but  they  did  not  trouble  themselves  about  saving  souls, 
other  than  their  own,  and  they  never  allowed  religion  to  inter- 
fere with  business,  robbing  churches  being  all  the  same  to 
them  as  robbing  ships. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  give  here  a  history  of  the  buc- 
caneers, but  only  to  give  them  brief  mention  in  connection 
with  their  doings  in  the  Pacific.  The  West  Indies  was  their 
home,  where  they  lived  and  labored  for  a  good  round  century, 
doing  other  things  than  acts  of  pure  piracy.  The  English 
buccaneers  assisted  the  English  in  the  conquest  of  Jamaica 
in  1655.  The  French  buccaneers,  under  Pierre  Legrand, 
rose  at  one  stroke  to  fame  and  fortune  by  the  capture  of  a 
richly  laden  galleon  of  the  annual  Spanish  fleet,  in  command 
of  the  vice-admiral,  the  pirates  climbing  on  board  from  a 
small  boat  at  night,  and  surprising  the  officers  at  cards  in  the 
admiral's  cabin. 

This  achievement  made  wild  with  envy  the  planters  of 
Tortuga  and  other  isles,  who  with  one  accord  rushed  to  sea  in 
small  boats  in  search  of  Spaniards,  and  soon  equipped  them- 
selves in  better  form  from  their  captured  prizes.  Another 
Frenchman,  Pierre  Frangois,  captured  the  vice-admiral  of  the 
pearl  fleet,  while  Bartholomew  Portugues,  with  a  boat  carry- 
ing but  four  guns  and  thirty  men,  successfully  fought 
a  Spanish  war  vessel  of  twenty  large  guns  and  seventy 
men. 

Land-piracy  came  on  apace;  Lewis  Scot  stormed  and  car- 
ried Compeache,  securing  large  ransom;  Mansvelt  and  John 
Davies  followed  the  bright  examples  of  their  predecessors 
on  sea  and  land.  Lolonnois  and  Montbar,  Frenchmen  and 
monsters  of  cruelty  and  crime,  were  long  a  terror  to  the  Span- 
ish main.  Lolonnois  began  his  career  with  the  capture  with 
twenty-two  men  in  two  canoes  on  the  coast  of  Cuba  of  a  Span- 
ish frigate.  His  prisoners  he  would  throw  overboard  or  burn 
in  their  ship;  it  is  said  that  he  once  struck  off  the  heads  of 
eighty  captives  with  his  own  sword  by  way  of  amusement. 
With  Michael  de  Basco  and  650  men  in  eight  ships  he  stormed 


500  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

Gibraltar  and  Maracaibo,  plundering  and  burning  other 
towns,  killing  seamen,  sinking  ships,  and  strewing  the  ocean 
with  horror.  It  is  unnecessary  to  speak  of  the  treatment  of 
women  by  fiends  like  these,  or  of  the  freebooter's  universal 
love  of  drink  and  gambling.  Lolonnois  finally  met  a  fate  in 
keeping  with  his  life;  he  was  torn  limb  from  limb  by  the  na- 
tives of  Darien,  the  body  burned,  and  the  ashes  scattered  to 
the  wind. 

Another  of  those  human  hyenas,  the  French  buccaneer, 
was  Montbar,  the  Exterminator  as  his  comrades  called  him, 
native  of  Languedoc,  who  from  his  youth  up  studied  brutality 
as  a  fine  art,  to  be  practised  on  the  Spaniards  as  opportunity 
should  offer.  He  learned  lessons  in  treachery  and  ferocity 
from  the  Spaniards  themselves,  in  their  treatment  of  the  na- 
tives, islanders  Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  which  he  put  into 
practice  with  delight.  Blood  thirstiness  was  a  passion  with 
him,  the  gratification  of  which  was  more  to  him  than  gold. 
The  cries  of  agony  arising  from  his  divers  tortures  and 
butcheries  were  as  sweetest  music  to  his  ear;  he  revelled  in  the 
sanguinary  for  its  own  sake. 

Not  far  behind  this  French  fiend  was  the  Welchman,  Sir 
Henry  Morgan,  whose  sordid  and  brutal  nature  was  fed  by 
cunning  and  cruelty.  With  twelve  sail  and  700  fighting  men 
he  swept  the  seas  and  terrorized  the  islands  and  mainland, 
plundering  the  cities  of  Cuba,  and  carrying  even  Portobello, 
on  the  Isthmus,  with  a  handful  of  determined  men,  afterward 
huddling  his  prisoners  into  the  castle  and  blowing  it  up  with 
powder,  darkening  the  sky  with  the  mangled  bodies  of  his  vic- 
tims. Fifteen  days  of  fiendish  revels  followed,  among  the 
pastimes  being  the  violation  of  women,  and  the  torture  of 
prisoners  for  the  disclosure  of  treasure  which  they  did  not 
possess.  News  thereof  crossing  the  Isthmus,  the  governor 
of  Panama  sent  Sir  Morgan  100,000  pieces  of  eight  to  be  ex- 
empt from  destruction  for  this  one  time.  When  the  messen- 
ger who  brought  Morgan  the  money  returned  to  Panama  and 
told  the  governor  with  how  small  a  force  the  Welchman  had 
taken  the  Spanish  stronghold  of  Portobello,  he  was  amazed, 
and  bade  the  messenger  return  and  ask  the  pirate  by  what 
means  he  was  able  to  accomplish  such  great  results  with  so 
small  a  force.  Whereupon  Morgan  sent  the  governor  a  pistol 
with  bullets,  saying,  "Keep  this  a  twelvemonth  and  I  will 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIRATES         501 

call  for  it."  But  the  governor  returned  the  weapon,  and 
with  it  a  gold  ring,  and  the  reply,  "  I  would  not  have  you 
travel  so  far  for  so  slight  an  object." 

But  the  good  governor  was  not  destined  to  escape  so  easily. 
Perhaps  the  most  brilliant  achievement  of  the  buccaneers  was 
the  capture  of  Panama  by  Morgan  in  1671.  The  Welchman 
had  now  at  his  command  39  ships  and  2000  men.  With  the 
island  of  Providence  as  a  rendezvous,  Morgan  as  a  preliminary 
step  sent  400  men  to  take  possession  of  the  castle  of  Chagre, 
which  was  accomplished  with  no  great  difficulty.  Then  land- 
ing his  entire  force  he  crossed  the  Isthmus,  escaping  the  sev- 
eral ambuscades  laid  for  him  by  the  governor,  and  camped 
near  the  city. 

The  crossing  of  this  narrow  neck  of  land  by  a  body  of  men, 
as  had  often  been  shown  before,  was  not  easy  of  accomplish- 
ment. In  this  instance  the  governor  of  Panama  had  depopu- 
lated the  country  and  stripped  it  of  food,  so  that  before  reach- 
ing their  destination  the  pirates  were  reduced  to  the  last 
extremity  of  hunger,  when  leather  became  a  luxury.  They 
had  large  guns  to  haul  and  heavy  burdens  to  carry  beneath  the 
burning  sun.  So  that  when  after  ten  days  of  toil  and  suffer- 
ing the  towers  of  Panama  came  into  view,  the  buccaneers  gave 
themselves  up  to  clamorous  exultation  over  relief  from  past 
miseries  and  the  joys  of  coming  conquest  and  plunder.  After 
filling  themselves  with  the  raw  flesh  of  cattle  they  found 
there,  being  too  hungry  and  impatient  to  stop  to  cook  it,  they 
threw  themselves  on  the  ground  and  slept  until  morning. 

About  ten  o'clock  the  gates  of  the  city  were  opened,  and 
forth  came  the  Spaniards  to  battle,  200  horse,  and  four  regi- 
ments of  foot  soldiers,  all  led  by  the  governor  in  person. 
Closing  in  upon  the  encampment,  with  the  cry  Viva  el  Key! 
they  rushed  upon  the  foe.  But  the  ground  was  marshy,  so 
that  the  cavalry  was  almost  ineffectual,  and  even  the  infantry 
were  at  a  disadvantage.  Meanwhile  from  their  secure  posi- 
tion the  pirates  poured  in  upon  them  so  deadly  a  fire  that  in 
two  hours  they  gave  way,  and  those  who  were  so  unfortunate 
as  not  to  find  protection  within  the  walls  were  ruthlessly 
butchered.  Six  hundred  Spaniards  thus  fell  on  that  day,  and 
many  of  Morgan's  men,  quarter  being  neither  asked  nor  given 
on  either  side.  Gaining  an  entrance,  the  guns  of  the  in- 
vaders were  planted  within  the  walls,  and  soon  the  city  was  in 


502  THE    NEW   PACIFIC 

flames,  being  fired  probably  by  the  Spaniards,  as  the  buc- 
caneers would  scarcely  destroy  their  captured  property. 

Old  Panama,  the  place  thus  destroyed  by  Morgan,  con- 
sisted at  this  time  of  12,000  houses,  besides  eight  monasteries 
and  two  richly  furnished  churches.  Many  of  the  dwellings 
were  elegant  structures  with  spacious  grounds, — altogether  a 
rich  and  beautiful  city,  being  the  entrepot  of  the  Pacific  for 
eastern-bound  gold  and  merchandise,  the  wealth  of  the  trans- 
pacific as  well  as  of  the  American  coasts  pouring  itself  for  a 
time  into  this  isthmus  funnel.  The  fire  continued  for  three 
weeks;  and  to  prevent  the  usual  debauchery,  Morgan  gave  out 
that  the  wine  was  poisoned,  which  statement  however  did  not 
prevent  the  men  from  drinking  it.  The  Genoese  had  there  a 
slave-factory,  where  Africans  destined  for  Peru  were  brought 
to  be  sold;  these  miserable  beings  all  perished  in  the  flames. 
The  Spaniards  had  hidden  away  much  of  their  portable 
wealth  in  wells  and  cellars,  and  were  tortured  to  force  dis- 
closure, the  clergy  suffering  most  of  all,  as  they  were  supposed 
to  be  the  recipients  of  many  secrets.  No  sooner  had  Morgan 
secured  the  city,  than  steps  were  taken  to  seize  the  shipping, 
which  resulted  in  securing  several  large  and  valuable  prizes, 
besides  many  smaller  ones.  All  the  land  and  the  sea  around 
were  scoured  for  plunder.  Thus  was  old  Panama  erased  from 
the  earth,  the  site  on  which  the  new  Panama  was  built  being 
some  six  miles  away. 

Malignant  alike  in  love  as  in  hate,  Morgan  subjected  a 
beautiful  Spanish  woman,  who  had  rejected  his  addresses 
with  scorn,  to  such  outrages  as  to  disgust  even  his  brother 
pirates.  Meanwhile  a  party  was  formed  to  take  possession  of 
a  captured  ship,  with  a  share  of  the  booty,  to  cruise  in  the 
South  sea,  and  establish  there  an  empire  of  infamy  as  in  the 
West  Indies;  hearing  of  which,  the  astute  leader  ordered  cut 
down  and  burned  the  mainmast  of  every  ship  in  port,  thus 
effectually  preventing  desertion  on  the  Pacific  side  of  the  con- 
tinent at  the  present  time.  The  spoils  taken  in  this  magnifi- 
cent raid  were  very  great,  all  the  country  round  being  laid 
under  contribution  for  beasts  of  burden  to  carry  the  plunder 
to  the  North  sea.  Finally  the  cannons  were  spiked;  on  175 
mules  the  booty  was  placed,  and  driving  along  with  them  600 
men  women  and  children,  Morgan  and  his  men  returned  to 
Chagre,  the  prisoners  being  sent  to  Portobello  for  ransom. 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIRATES         503 

And  after  all  the  suffering  and  success,  whatever  the  leaders 
may  have  secured  from  this  rich  plunder,  the  men  received 
only  about  $200  each,  whereat  they  grumbled  greatly,  but  to 
little  purpose.  For  his  many  exploits,  Charles  II  conferred 
on  Morgan  the  honor  of  knighthood. 

Again  in  1680  a  body  of  300  marauders  under  John  Coxon 
crossed  the  Isthmus  to  Panama  bay,  and  embarked  on  the 
waters  of  the  Pacific  in  a  fleet  of  canoes;  they  soon  secured  four 
Spanish  ships,  with  which  they  took  many  merchant  vessels. 
Coxon  returned  to  the  north  with  seventy  men  and  good  plun- 
der, but  the  main  body  elected  to  remain  and  ravage  the  Pe- 
ruvian coast  under  the  leadership  of  Sawkins,  Sharp,  and 
Watling,  returning  to  the  West  Indies  round  Cape  Horn. 

John  Cook,  entering  the  Pacific  via  Cape  Horn  in  1683  for 
piratical  purposes,  found  there  a  Thames-built  ship,  Eaton 
commander,  who  informed  Cook  that  besides  himself  there 
were  in  those  waters  one  Captain  Swan,  and  others  with  ships 
fitted  out  in  England  for  purposes  of  privateering.  Upon 
the  death  of  Cook,  Edward  Davis  took  command  of  his  ship. 
Two  years  later  the  bay  of  Panama  swarmed  with  pirates  and 
privateers  of  all  nations,  preying  on  the  commerce  of  Spain 
and  fighting  one  another. 

The  city  of  Vera  Cruz  was  taken  by  stratagem  in  1683  by 
the  three  famous  buccaneers,  Van  Horn,  Grammont,  and 
Laurent  de  Graff.  One  dark  night  a  force  was  landed  three 
leagues  from  the  city,  and  the  inhabitants  taken  by  surprise. 
They  were  locked  up  in  the  churches,  with  barrels  of  gun- 
powder placed  at  the  doors,  and  sentinels  with  lighted  match 
ready  to  blow  them  up  instantly  upon  the  slightest  indication 
of  disturbance.  After  quietly  pillaging  the  city,  the  pris- 
oners were  informed  that  they  could  have  their  liberty  on  pay- 
ment of  ten  millions  of  livres.  When  half  of  the  amount  had 
been  collected  and  handed  over  to  the  miscreants,  a  Spanish 
fleet  of  seventeen  sail  came  in  sight,  which  with  the  appear- 
ance of  a  body  of  troops  on  shore  caused  a  retreat,  which  was 
well-ordered,  however,  the  buccaneers  retaining  all  their 
booty,  including  1500  slaves. 

A  brilliant  exploit  was  the  sack  of  Leon  and  Realejo  by 
Edward  Davis  in  1687.     The  longest  naval  engagement  on 
record  in  these  waters  was  the  one  in  which  Davis  fought  two 
large  Spanish  vessels  for  seven  days. 
17 


504  THE   NEW   PACIFIC 

The  decline  of  buccaneering  began  with  the  war  between 
France  and  England  arising  from  the  accession  of  William  of 
Orange  in  1689  to  the  English  throne.  This  was  the  proxi- 
mate cause,  the  influence  of  European  hostilities  being 
quickly  felt  in  the  Caribbean  sea  by  the  separation  into  bands 
hostile  to  each  other  of  the  English  and  French  freebooters. 
But  aside  from  this  the  elements  of  decay  were  in  the  system 
itself.  No  community  can  exist  permanently  on  the  fruits 
of  wrong  and  injustice.  But  sea-robbery,  like  other  rob- 
beries, has  not  wholly  died  out  yet;  even  the  capture  and  con- 
fiscation of  private  goods  upon  the  ocean,  by  warships,  might 
be  considered  as  sailing  rather  close  to  the  wind  in  a  war  for 
humanity's  sake. 

From  Drake  to  Morgan,  a  round  hundred  years  and  more, 
were  the  palmy  days  of  piracy  and  buccaneering  in  Pacific 
waters.  As  Spain  was  chief  owner  of  the  western  world,  its 
islands  continents  and  seas,  she  had  the  most  from  which  to 
steal,  and  so  it  became  the  special  pleasure  of  the  other  Euro- 
pean nations  to  prey  upon  Spain.  When  they  were  at  war,  it 
was  called  privateering;  when  not  at  war,  piracy  or  buc- 
caneering; in  any  event  the  lootings  by  sea  and  land  contin- 
ued, so  that  people  were  somewhat  uncertain,  upon  the  return 
of  ships  with  gold  and  glory,  whether  to  call  them  privateers 
or  pirates. 

Spanish  treachery  had  much  to  do  with  prolonging  and  in- 
tensifying troubles.  While  even  in  his  infamies  the  word  of 
an  Englishman  was  usually  good,  no  reliance  whatever  could 
be  placed  upon  the  promise  of  a  Spaniard.  For  example, 
Hawkins  and  Drake  were  at  Vera  Cruz  in  1567  with  a  cargo 
of  slaves  to  sell,  when  a  Spanish  fleet  came  in  sight  having  a 
cargo  worth  some  $6,000,000,  which  the  Englishmen  might 
have  captured  if  attacked  before  entering  the  harbor.  But 
upon  the  solemn  assurance  of  the  Spaniards  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  depart  in  peace, — a  promise  never  intended  to 
be  kept, — the  fleet  was  permitted  to  enter  and  anchor  under 
the  guns  of  San  Juan  de  Ulua,  whereupon  the  English  were 
fired  on  from  all  sides  and  cut  to  pieces,  two  small  vessels 
alone  escaping.  This  outrage  w-as  long  remembered,  and  it 
cost  the  Spaniards  dearly.  The  first  attempt  at  reprisal  was 
an  attack  on  Nombre  de  Dios  in  1572  by  Drake,  followed  by 
other  depredations  on  the  Isthmus. 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIRATES         505 

Another  merry  English  blade  was  John  Oxenham,  who 
with  Drake  enjoyed  sportive  times  on  the  Darien  isthmus  in 
1573,  and  lost  his  life  there.  Mooring  his  ship  on  the  north 
side,  Drake  marched  inland  to  intercept  the  treasure  mule- 
train  from  Panama  to  Nombre  de  Dios;  but  one  of  his  seamen, 
taking  this  occasion  to  get  drunk  and  break  the  stillness  of 
the  night  by  his  bacchanalian  songs,  defeated  the  purpose. 
Upon  another  occasion,  however,  Drake  here  captured  a  treas- 
ure train  and  several  towns.  Oxenham,  two  years  afterward, 
having  then  a  ship  of  his  own,  landed  his  men  at  the  same 
place,  beached  his  vessel  and  covered  it  with  the  branches  of 
trees;  then  marched  twelve  leagues  to  a  river  which  flowed 
into  the  South  sea,  where  he  built  a  boat,  sailed  to  the  Pearl 
islands,  and  captured  two  Peruvian  barks  with  160,000  pesos 
in  silver,  but  was  himself  captured  before  reaching  his  hidden 
vessel,  and  carried  prisoner  to  Panama.  Questioned  if  he 
carried  the  queen's  commission,  or  a  license  from  any  prince 
or  state,  Oxenham  replied  that  he  held  no  commission,  but 
acted  solely  for  himself.  It  may  be  that  this  man  could  not 
tell  a  lie;  he  was  not  a  Spaniard;  or  it  may  be  that  he  saw  that 
a  lie  would  not  serve  him;  at  all  events,  as  the  record  has  it, 
"  Upon  this  answer  Oxenham  and  his  men  were  all  con- 
demned to  death,  and  the  whole,  except  five  boys,  were  ex- 
ecuted." 

While  Drake  was  on  the  Isthmus  searching  for  the  treas- 
ure train,  he  came  to  a  hill  whereon  stood  a  high  tree,  from 
the  top  of  which  the  North  sea  and  the  South  sea  could  plainly 
be  seen.  Sitting  in  the  branches  of  this  tree,  "and  having 
as  it  pleased  God  at  this  time  by  reason  of  the  breeze  a  very 
fair  day,  seeing  that  sea  of  which  he  had  heard  such  golden 
reports,  he  besought  Almighty  God  of  his  goodness  to  give 
him  life  and  leave  to  sail  once  in  an  English  ship  in  that  sea." 

"  Aye,  noble  captain  "  broke  in  John  Oxenham,  "  And  un- 
less you  did  beat  me  from  your  company,  I  would  follow  you 
by  God's  grace". 

John  Hawkins  was  of  the  same  fraternity,  and  a  kinsman 
of  Drake.  These  gentlemen  were  both  early  in  the  slave 
trade,  loading  negroes  on  the  Guinea  coast  and  carrying  them 
to  the  Indies,  islands  and  main  land.  This  slave-catching 
on  land  and  taking  Spanish  treasure  ships  at  sea,  made  a  fine 
business,  but  none  of  these  slave  ships  ever  found  their  way 
into  the  Pacific  ocean. 


506  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

As  mentioned  elsewhere,  with  five  vessels  fitted  out  osten- 
sibly for  trading  to  Alexandria,  Francis  Drake  in  1577  sailed 
from  England  on  his  voyage  of  circumnavigation.  He  began 
at  once  to  capture  ships,  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  keeping 
whatever  he  desired  and  destroying  the  remainder.  Arrived 
at  Port  San  Julian,  where  Magellan's  trouble  with  his  cap- 
tains occurred,  mutiny  was  also  discovered  among  Drake's 
men,  and  checked  in  time  to  save  the  fleet  and  the  comman- 
der. It  is  said  that  the  plot  originated  in  England,  and  that 
it  developed  as  the  voyage  continued.  However  that  was,  it 
was  here  discovered  and  exposed.  The  leader,  Thomas 
Doughty,  an  officer  of  ability  in  the  fleet,  was  accused,  and  so 
overwhelming  was  the  evidence  that  he  confessed.  Drake 
took  the  matter  coolly,  and  told  the  man  he  might  choose  one 
of  three  ways  for  his  final  disposition,  to  be  executed  at  once, 
or  return  to  England  and  stand  trial  there,  or  to  be  left  alone 
among  the  savages.  He  chose  the  first,  because,  he  said,  he 
would  not  endanger  his  soul  among  savage  infidels,  nor 
undergo  a  disgraceful  trial  in  England.  He  only  asked  that 
he  might  receive  communion  with  the  generals,  and  that  his 
death  might  not  be  other  than  that  of  a  gentleman. 

"  No  reasons,"  the  narrative  goes  on  to  say,  "  could  per- 
suade Mr  Doughty  to  alter  his  choice;  seeing  he  remained  in 
his  determination  his  last  requests  were  granted;  and  the  next 
convenient  day  a  communion  was  celebrated  by  Mr  Francis 
Fletcher,  pastor  of  the  fleet.  The  general  himself  commu- 
nicated in  the  sacred  ordinance  with  Mr  Doughty,  after  which 
they  dined  at  the  same  table  together,  as  cheerfully  in  sobri- 
ety as  ever  in  their  lives  they  had  done;  and  taking  their 
leave,  by  drinking  to  each  other,  as  if  some  short  journey  only 
had  been  in  hand."  Thereupon  he  was  beheaded. 

At  Valparaiso  a  large  ship  was  taken  with  "  1770  botijas, 
or  jars  full  of  Chili  wine;  60,000  pesos  of  gold;  with  some 
jewels  and  other  merchandise."  The  town  was  given  up  to 
plunder,  the  church  robbed  and  the  proceeds  given  to  the 
Reverend  Fletcher.  Proceeding  northward  they  took  every- 
thing useful  they  could  lay  their  hands  on.  Dozens  of  ves- 
sels Drake  took  on  this  coast,  little  opposition  being  offered, 
and  few  atrocities  were  committed.  The  captured  vessels 
were  not  even  burned,  many  of  them  being  turned  adrift  with 
sails  set.  One  large  ship,  from  which  they  took  gold,  silver, 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIRATES         507 

and  jewels  to  the  value  of  $360,000,  was  permitted  to  proceed 
on  her  way  to  Panama  unharmed. 

Drake  thought  he  would  now  like  to  find  a  strait  which 
would  give  him  a  short  cut  back  to  England.  Passing  Pan- 
ama he  repaired  his  ships  at  Nicaragua,  rifling  such  vessels 
as  fell  in  his  way,  and  sacking  a  town  here  and  there.  Being 
beyond  the  region  of  the  Spaniards,  and  finding  no  strait, 
nor  any  thing  he  deemed  worth  stealing,  Drake  turned  from 
the  American  coast  and  sailed  for  the  Philippine  islands,  and 
thence  by  the  way  of  Good  Hope  cape  home.  The  queen 
knighted  Drake,  and  dined  on  board  his  ship,  but  she  seques- 
tered his  treasure,  pending  Spanish  claims,  and  then  between 
them  all  were  fought  off  claimants,  so  that  small  restitution 
was  made. 

Francisco  de  Gualle  in  1582  sailed  from  Acapulco  for  the 
Philippines,  returning  to  New  Spain  in  two  years.  The  voy- 
age caused  much  talk  but  really  amounted  to  little.  The  ac- 
count, written  originally  by  Gualle,  was  translated  from  the 
Spanish  into  low  Dutch  by  J.  Huighen  Van  Linschoten,  and 
from  this  into  other  languages.  Should  they  be  called  pi- 
rates or  patriots,  those  worshipful  knights  who  fought  the 
Spanish  armada,  and  sailed  into  the  South  sea  to  rob  and 
murder,  and  were  praised  and  petted  and  beheaded  by  good 
Queen  Bess?  There  were  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Sir  Richard 
Hawkins,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  and  many  another  Sir  made  or 
unmade  by  this  madam. 

All  good  pirates  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  were  knighted, 
just  as  the  good  generals  of  our  day  are  given  degrees  by  uni- 
versities, not  by  reason  of  any  special  merit  or  scholarship  on 
the  part  of  the  recipient,  but  simply  and  in  a  general  way  to 
encourage  the  art  of  killing.  One  steals  well,  another  kills 
well,  and  those  who  have  read  to  them  in  the  churches  at  a 
price  per  annum,  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal;  Thou  shalt  not  kill  ", 
thus  exalt  the  thief  and  murderer.  It  is  a  question  of  quan- 
tity; the  wife  of  the  wholesale  dealer  is  superior  to  the  wife 
of  the  retail  dealer;  so  it  is  with  regard  to  thieves  and  mur- 
derers. We  do  not  hear  of  Sir  Shakespeare  or  Sir  Milton, 
though  there  are  some  Sirs  among  modern  men  of  letters, 
which  let  us  hope,  being  harmless,  may  ever  prove  a  source 
of  pride  and  satisfaction  to  their  possessors. 

War   with    Spain   being  at  length  formally  declared,  Sir 


508  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

Drake  sailed  forth  in  1585  with  25  ships  and  2300  seamen  to 
capture  the  West  Indies.  It  was  no  more  than  play  for  the 
brave  Englishmen  to  land  a  force  for  a  night  attack  and  pil- 
lage and  burn  such  places  as  Santiago  at  Cape  Verde  islands, 
and  Santo  Domingo  in  the  West  Indies.  But  bad  as  were  the 
English  and  Dutch  of  those  days  the  Spaniards  were  worse. 
For  example,  at  Santo  Domingo  Drake's  negro  boy  with  a  flag 
of  truce  was  pierced  with  a  Spanish  spear  so  that  he  died. 
Next  day  two  monks  were  taken  to  the  spot  where  the  vile 
deed  was  perpetrated  and  executed,  notification  being  sent  to 
the  Spaniards  that  every  day  on  that  spot  at  that  hour  two  of 
their  number  should  so  suffer  until  the  murderers  of  his  boy 
should  be  given  up,  which  was  shortly  done.  Many  are  the 
brave  deeds  chronicled  of  Drake  and  Sir  Hawkins  before  they 
met  their  death,  the  latter  at  Porto  Rico  and  the  former  at 
Portobello. 

The  next  Englishman  to  enter  the  Pacific  was  Thomas  Cav- 
endish, also  elsewhere  mentioned,  who  sailed  in  1586,  at  his 
own  charge,  with  three  vessels,  of  120,  60,  and  40  tons  re- 
spectively, touched  at  the  Canaries,  ran  along  the  coast  of 
Africa  to  Sierra  Leone,  and  there,  after  winning  the  confi- 
dence of  the  negroes,,  plundered  and  burned  their  town,  like 
the  villain  he  was,  and  no  one  knows  why  to  this  day.  There 
are  good  Englishmen  and  there  are  bad  Englishmen.  This 
Cavendish  was  a  bad  man  upon  instinct,  beside  whom  the 
noble  pirates  Sir  Drake  and  Sir  Hawkins  were  gentlemen. 
All  the  same  he  sailed  round  the  world,  and  upon  his  return 
wrote  his  own  epitaph  in  the  following  words  addressed  to 
the  lord  chamberlain:  "  I  navigated  along  the  coast  of  Chili, 
Peru,  and  Neuva  Espanna  where  I  made  great  spoils.  I 
burnt  and  sunk  19  sails  of  ships,  small  and  great.  All  the  vil- 
lages and  towns  that  ever  I  landed  at  I  burnt  and  spoiled." 

The  wretched  remains  of  the  Spanish  colony  in  Magellan 
strait,  Cavendish  at  first  promised  to  carry  to  Peru,  and  then 
sailed  away  leaving  them  there  to  horrible  death  from  starva- 
tion. One  Spaniard,  indeed,  he  brought  with  him  from  the 
strait  to  serve  as  interpreter  on  the  coasts  of  Chili  and  Peru, 
named  Hernandez,  who  proved  faithless,  whereat  the  Eng- 
lishmen complained  that  "  notwithstanding  all  his  deep  and 
damnable  oaths  that  he  would  never  forsake  them,  but  would 
die  on  their  side  before  he  would  be  false,  had  finally  deceived 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIRATES         509 

them."  A  pretty  pastime  with  Sir  Cavendish  was  to  catch 
a  bunch  of  villagers,  and  releasing  the  wives  hold  the  hus- 
bands for  tribute,  to  be  paid  in  the  fruits  of  the  country. 

William  Dampier,  whether  navigator,  circumnavigator,  pi- 
rate, privateer,  buccaneer,  Jamaica  planter,  or  Campeache 
log-wood  cutter,  was  a  seventeenth  century  adventurer  of  no 
common  order.  His  father  was  an  English  farmer,  and  the 
son  went  early  to  sea.  After  living  all  sorts  of  lives,  and 
undergoing  innumerable  experiences  by  sea  and  land,  we  find 
him  in  the  Pacific,  in  1683,  as  captain  of  a  large  ship  which 
he  had  taken  from  the  Danes  by  stratagem,  and  renamed  the 
Bachelor's  Delight.  The  stratagem  was  not  unlike  that  some- 
times employed  by  the  footpad  ashore,  who  pretending  to  be 
drunk  stumbles  against  his  victim  to  throw  him  off  his  guard. 
It  was  Captain  Cook,  then  on  board,  who  played  the  game, 
and  their  vessel  was  the  little  Revenge.  Arriving  at  the  river 
Sherborough,  he  prepared  to  anchor  near  the  Dane,  who  felt 
no  fear  of  so  small  a  boat  as  the  Revenge,  and  one  apparently 
so  weakly  manned,  most  of  the  pirates  having  been  sent  below. 
As  the  Revenge  crept  meekly  along,  if  any  thing  a  little  too 
close  to  the  great  Dane,  Cook  called  out  in 'a  loud  voice  to  put 
the  helm  down  and  keep  away.  But  previous  orders  had  been 
issued  to  do  the  very  reverse,  so  that  when  the  little  craft 
bumped  against  the  big  ship  in  this  careless  manner,  and  the 
cut-throats  swarmed  up  so  unexpectedly  like  demons  from 
hell,  the  Dane  was  theirs  with  the  loss  of  but  five  men. 

After  passing  through  Magellan  strait,  and  refreshing  his 
crew  at  Juan  Fernandez  islands,  Dampier  followed  the  main 
land  of  America  northward,  taking  whatever  he  desired  that 
came  in  his  way,  whether  ships,  people,  or  treasure,  until  he 
came  to  Trujillo,  narrowly  missing  a  Spanish  galleon  contain- 
ing 800,000  pieces  of  eight.  Trujillo  had  been  recently  forti- 
fied, and  so  strongly  that  Dampier  declined  an  attack,  and  so 
sailed  for  the  Galapagos,  which  he  plundered,  together  with 
the  neighboring  isles,  and  then  proceeded  to  Guayaquil, 
which  Dampier  pronounced  one  of  the  chief  ports  of  the 
South  sea,  exporting  woollen  cloth,  besides  hides  tallow  cocoa 
and  sarsaparilla.  Here  also  the  Spaniards  were  too  well  pre- 
pared for  an  attack  for  it  to  be  safe  to  make  one;  so  the  Eng- 
lishmen sailed  on  to  the  Pearl  islands,  in  the  bay  of  Panama, 
where  they  rested  and  refitted. 


510  THE    NEW    PACIFIC 

On  the  way,  they  captured,  among  other  ships,  the  packet- 
boat  from  Lima,  whose  captain  had  thrown  overboard  the  let- 
ters, attached  to  a  line  and  buoy.  Recovering  which,  Dampier 
learned  that  the  governor  of  Panama  was  actively  em- 
ployed hurrying  forward  the  triennial  fleet  from  Callao  to 
Panama,  that  the  treasure  for  Portobello  and  Spain  might  es- 
cape the  clutches  of  the  pirates.  Dampier  had  ere  this  been 
joined  by  Davis,  and  the  fleet  of  the  buccaneers  now  consisted 
of  ten  sail,  reinforcements  arriving  across  the  Isthmus  rais- 
ing their  number  to  1000  men.  As  the  Lima  treasure-ships 
were  late  in  making  their  appearance,  they  would  probably 
have  escaped  capture  but  for  the  intercepted  letters.  As  it 
was,  the  pirates  laid  patiently  in  wait  for  six  months,  watch- 
ing for  their  prey.  When  the  Lima  fleet  appeared,  it  was 
found  to  consist  of  fourteen  sail,  and  by  no  means  so  con- 
temptible an  enemy  as  was  at  first  supposed.  Two  of  the 
ships  were  of  forty  guns  each,  two  of  thirty-eight  guns,  and 
two  of  them  were  fire  ships.  It  soon  became  apparent  as  the 
Spaniards  came  down  upon  them,  that  for  once  they  were 
prepared  and  intended  to  meet  the  enemy.  The  pirates,  be- 
ing to  the  windward,  might  fight  or  fly,  as  they  chose.  In  the 
darkness  of  the  night  which  now  came  on,  the  Spaniards 
shifted  their  position  so  as  to  give  them  the  advantage.  See- 
ing which  the  pirates  turned  and  fled,  keeping  up  a  running 
fire  all  day.  In  the  end  they  were  glad  to  make  their  escape, 
leaving  the  Lima  fleet  in  possession  of  its  treasure. 

While  the  Lima  fleet  came  to  anchor  at  Panama,  the  buc- 
caneers sailed  away  to  the  assault  of  Leon,  in  Nicaragua, 
which  they  carried  with  640  men.  The  payment  of  a  prom- 
ised ransom  of  $300,000  was  so  delayed  as  to  excite  suspicion, 
and  the  buccaneers  withdrew  after  burning  the  city.  The 
squadron,  composed  of  companies  under  the  three  chiefs 
Dampier,  Swan,  and  Harris,  now  broke  up,  Dampier  and 
Swan  continuing  northward  along  the  coast  to  Acapulco, 
Colima,  and  Cape  San  Lucas,  whence  they  crossed  the  ocean 
to  Manila,  and  proceeded  via  the  cape  of  Good  Hope  to  Eng- 
land. While  in  midpacific,  the  provisions  became  exhausted, 
and  the  men  threatened  to  kill  and  eat,  first  Captain  Swan, 
and  then  every  one  who  had  promoted  the  voyage.  But  com- 
ing to  an  island,  which  was  a  garden,  and  seemingly  to  them 
the  most  beautiful  and  fruitful  in  the  world,  they  found  bet- 
ter food  than  those  tough  mariners. 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIRATES         511 

Hawkins  tells  us  how  the  swearing  malady  was  treated  on 
his  ship.  Escaping  from  great  danger  on  one  occasion  he 
says :  "  We  had  no  small  cause  to  give  God  thanks  and 
prayse  for  our  deliverance;  and  so,  all  our  ships  come  together, 
wee  magnified  His  glorious  Name  for  his  mercie  towards  us, 
and  tooke  an  occasion  hereby  to  banish  swearing  out  of  our 
shippes,  which  amongst  the  common  sort  of  mariners  and  sea- 
faring men  is  too  ordinarily  abused.  So  with  a  generall  con- 
sent of  all  our  companie,  it  was  ordayned  that  in  every  ship 
there  should  be  a  palmer  or  ferula,  which  should  be  in  the 
keeping  of  him  who  was  taken  with  an  oath;  and  that  he  who 
had  the  palmer  should  give  to  every  other  that  he  tooke  swear- 
ing, in  the  palme  of  the  hand,  a  palmada  with  it,  and  the 
ferula.  And  whosoever  at  the  time  of  evening  or  morning 
prayers  was  found  to  have  the  palmer,  should  have  three 
blowes  given  him  by  the  captaine  or  master;  and  that  he 
should  be  still  bound  to  free  himself  by  taking  another,  or  else 
to  runne  in  daunger  of  continuing  the  penaltie;  which  exe- 
cuted, few  days  reformed  the  vice;  so  that  in  three  dayes  to- 
gether was  not  one  oath  heard  to  be  sworne." 

With  the  ships  Daintie,  Fancie,  and  Hawke,  Richard  Haw- 
kins sailed  from  England  in  1593  through  the  strait  of  Ma- 
gellan into  the  South  sea,  intending  to  visit  Japan,  the  Phil- 
ippines, and  the  Moluccas,  and  capture  booty  from  the 
Spaniards  and  others.  Writing  up  his  log  for  December  on 
the  coast  of  Brazil  he  says:  "  The  twenty  two  of  this  moneth, 
at  the  going  too  of  the  sunne,  we  descryed  a  Portingall  ship, 
and  gave  her  chase,  and  comming  within  hayling  of  her,  shee 
rendred  her  selfe  without  any  resistance;  shee  was  of  an  hun- 
dred tuns,  bound  for  Angola,  to  load  negroes,  to  be  carried 
and  sold  in  the  river  of  Plate.  It  is  a  trade  of  great  profit 
and  much  used,  for  that  the  negroes  are  carried  from  the  head 
of  the  river  Plate  to  Potosi  to  labour  in  the  mynes.  It  is  a 
bad  negro  who  is  not  worth  there  five  or  six  hundredth  peeces, 
every  peece  of  tenne  ryals,  which  they  receive  in  ryals  of  plate, 
for  there  is  no  other  merchandize  in  those  partes.  We  took 
out  of  this  prize  for  our  provision,  and  praised  God  for  his 
bountie,  providence,  and  grace  extended  towards  us." 

Entering  the  strait,  "  in  the  middle  of  the  reach  we  saw 
certaine  hogges,  but  they  were  so  faire  from  us  that  wee  could 
not  discerne  if  they  were  of  those  of  the  countrie,  or  brought 


512  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

by  the  Spaniards."  One  day  they  "  discovered  a  great  com- 
pany of  scales,  or  sea-wolves,  sleeping,  with  their  bellies  tost- 
ing  against  the  sunne.  Wee  provided  our  selves  with  staves, 
and  other  weapons,  and  sought  to  steale  upon  them  at  una- 
wares, to  surprise  some  of  them;  and  coming  down  the  side 
of  a  hill,  wee  were  not  discovered  till  wee  were  close  upon 
them.  Notwithstanding,  their  sentinell,  before  wee  could  ap- 
proach, with  a  great  howle  waked  them,  We  got  betwixt  the 
sea  and  some  of  them,  but  they  shunned  us  not,  for  they  came 
directly  upon  us,  and  though  we  dealt  here  and  there  a  blow, 
yet  not  a  man  that  wothstood  them  escaped  the  overthrow. 
They  reckon  not  of  a  muskett  shott,  a  sword  peirceth  not  their 
skinne,  and  to  give  a  blow  with  a  staffe  is  as  to  smite  upon  a 
stone;  onely  in  giving  the  blow  upon  his  snout,  presently  he 
falleth  downe  dead." 

Capturing  some  vessels  on  the  coast  of  Chili,  Hawkins  was 
himself  captured  on  the  coast  of  Peru,  toward  the  Pearl  isl- 
ands and  Panama,  which  places  he  encountered  as  a  prisoner, 
suffering  likewise  incarceration  in  Peru  and  Spain.  Sir  Haw- 
kins was  quite  the  British  tar  and  gentleman  in  his  free  rov- 
ings,  and  the  Spaniards  treated  him  with  distinguished  kind- 
ness, for  them,  granting  him  in  his  surrender  en  buena 
guerra,  as  they  called  it,  that  is  a  few  years  imprisonment 
only,  without  the  faggots  or  the  Inquisition;  but  all  the  same 
Sir  Hawkins  liked  it  better  taking  than  being  taken.  His 
praise  to  heaven  is  likewise  less  profuse  when  the  enemy  suc- 
ceeds, but  in  that  event  the  enemy's  praises  ascend  and  so  the 
proper  equilibrium  is  preserved  in  heaven. 

The  English  have  ever  an  eye  to  decorum,  even  in  their 
obliquities.  Among  all  nations,  piety  has  even  been  the 
handmaid  of  piracy,  but  Queen  Elizabeth  seemed  specially  so- 
licitous as  to  the  morals  of  her  freebooters,  if  we  may  judge 
by  the  regulations.  "  (1)  All  the  company  shall  repaire 
every  day  twice  to  heare  publike  prayers,  all  praising  God 
together  with  psalme  and  prayer.  (2)  No  man  shall  swear. 
(3)  No  man  shall  speak  evil  of  our  dread  soveraigne  or  the 
established  religion.  (4)  No  man  shall  speake  against  the 
goode  successe  of  the  voyage.  (5)  Attend  to  it  that  no  man 
doe  grumble  at  his  allowance  of  vituall." 

Walter  Raleigh,  like  others  whose  appetites  for  adventure 
was  whetted  by  his  skirmish  with  the  Spanish  armada,  in 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIRATES        513 

1595  sailed  with  five  ships  for  Trinidad,  in  search  of  El  Do- 
rado of  the  Orinoco.  He  ascended  the  river  some  distance, 
and  bringing  away  some  stones  containing  gold,  returned  to 
England. 

El  Dorado  was  the  latest  dream  of  the  spoiler.  Somewhere 
under  the  equator,  back  of  Guiana,  and  up  the  river  Orinoco, 
rumor  placed  a  land  gilded  with  gold;  a  land  whose  situation 
shifted  with  the  times,  but  whose  existence  was  always  in  the 
air.  In  the  days  of  old  Darien  it  was  up  the  Atrato,  or  per- 
adventure  the  Magdalena,  that  the  gilded  city  of  Dabaiba 
must  be  sought,  where  Vasco  Nunez  looked  for  it  in  1512, 
and  Colmenares,  and  Bartolome  Hurtado,  but  who  found  in 
place  of  the  expected  golden  temple,  and  a  city  whose  streets 
were  paved  with  precious  stones,  only  an  Indian  town  whose 
houses  were  built  in  the  branches  of  palm  trees,  ascent  to 
which  was  made  by  ladders  drawn  up  at  night. 

It  may  have  been  the  treasure  tombs  and  temple  on  the 
Cenu  river,  or  in  the  Guaca  valley,  which  were  rifled  by  Fran- 
cisco Cesar  with  100  men  in  1536  of  30,000  castellanos;  for  it 
is  well  known  that  on  and  all  around  the  Darien  isthmus  the 
sepulchres  of  the  savages  contain  golden  implements  and  or- 
naments of  no  small  value. 

And  now  half  a  century  later  comes  this  gay  courtier  from 
his  virgin  queen  to  achieve  what  these  Spanish  adventurers 
had  all  failed  to  do,  namely,  to  find  and  rifle  El  Dorado.  Was 
it  folly  for  this  astute  Englishman  to  put  such  faith  in  these 
wild  Indian  tales  as  to  lead  him  to  the  fitting  out  of  three 
expeditions  in  all,  involving  the  men  and  money  for  six  or 
eight  ships  and  their  equipment?  Perhaps.  Yet  what  else 
had  Vasco  Nunez  to  go  upon  when  he  crossed  the  Isthmus  to 
the  South  sea;  or  Cortes  when  he  burned  his  ships  and  sallied 
forth  for  Mexico;  or  Pizarro  when  he  sought  and  found  the 
golden  Sun-temple  of  Cuzco  and  the  treasure-houses  of  Ata- 
hualpa?  Had  they  believed  less  they  would  have  achieved 
less. 

But  there  were  other  things  than  El  Dorados  to  tax  Ral- 
eigh's credulity.  There  were  present  Amazons  to  guard  the 
riches;  which  might  be  true  enough,  as  on  the  isle  of  Cali- 
fornia Cortes  had  his  Amazons,  not  to  go  back  to  Greek 
legend  and  the  Black  sea.  Some  had  even  said  that  both 
Montezuma  and  Atahualpa  had  transferred  part  of  their 


514  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

treasures  to  Guiana  in  order  to  secure  it  from  the  rapacity  of 
the  Spaniards,  and  there  it  had  been  kept  for  good  Elizabeth, 
whose  portrait  Raleigh  failed  not  to  display,  or  her  virtues  to 
extol,  to  the  man-eating  savages  of  the  Orinoco.  But  El  Do- 
rado Raleigh  found  not,  and  so  returned  to  his  London  queen, 
to  be  housed  in  the  London  tower. 

With  the  failure  of  Sir  Hawkins,  the  English  were  content 
for  a  time  to  remain  at  home,  but  the  Spaniards  were  all  the 
more  ready  to  continue  discoveries  and  settlement  in  the  Pa- 
cific. By  order  of  Philip  of  Spain,  the  viceroy  of  Peru  sent 
Alvaro  de  Mendana,  in  1595,  with  four  ships  and  378  men,  to 
plant  a  colony  at  the  Solomon  islands.  At  Madalena  and  the 
Marquesas,  discovered  on  this  voyage,  the  Spaniards  perpe- 
trated the  most  wanton  and  unprovoked  brutalities  upon  the 
natives,  whom  they  pronounced  a  superior  people.  "  These 
islanders  were  in  colour  almost  white,"  they  said;  "  they  had 
long  hair,  which  some  of  them  suffered  to  hang  loose,  and 
others  gathered  in  a  knot  on  the  top  of  the  head. 

"  The  natives  of  the  Marquesas  had  large  sailing  canoes, 
neatly  constructed  with  tools  made  of  shells  and  the  bones  of 
fishes.  Their  town  was  built  so  as  to  form  two  sides  of  a 
quadrangle,  one  standing  north  and  south  and  the  other  east 
and  west.  The  ground  near  the  houses  was  neatly  paved,  and 
planted  round  thick  with  trees.  The  houses  seemed  to  be 
held  in  common.  Some  of  them  had  low  doors,  and  others 
were  open  the  whole  length  of  the  front.  They  were  built 
with  timber  and  bamboo  canes  intermixed,  and  the  floor  was 
raised  above  the  level  of  the  ground  without.  The  articles  of 
food  were  hogs,  fowls,  and  fish;  cocoanuts,  sugar-canes,  and 
plantains  of  an  excellent  kind." 

And  thus  they  speak  of  the  bread-fruit,  this  being  the  earli- 
est description  of  it.  "  But  the  fruit  most  highly  commended 
in  the  original  accounts  is  one  which  was  produced  by  the 
trees  which  the  natives  cultivated  near  their  houses;  it  grows 
to  the  size  of  a  boy's  head;  when  ripe  it  is  of  a  green  colour, 
but  of  a  strong  green  before  it  is  ripe;  the  outside  or  rind  is 
streaked  crossways  like  a  pineapple;  the  form  is  not  entirely 
round  but  becomes  narrow  towards  the  end;  the  stalk  runs  to 
the  middle  of  the  fruit,  where  there  is  a  kind  of  web;  it  has 
neither  stone  nor  kernel,  nor  is  any  part  unprofitable  except 
the  rind,  which  is  thin;  it  has  but  little  moisture;  it  is  eaten 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIKATES         515 

many  ways,  and  by  natives  is  called  white  food;  it  is  well 
tasted,  wholesome  and  nutritious;  the  leaves  are  large,  and 
indented  in  the  manner  of  those  of  the  West  India  papaw 
tree." 

At  what  they  called  the  Santa  Cruz  islands  death  overtook 
the  commander,  then  in  his  54th  year.  Mendana  ranks  high 
among  discoverers,  being  the  first  to  visit  many  of  the  islands 
of  the  South  Pacific.  The  wife  of  the  commander,  Dona  Isa- 
bel, who  accompanied  him  in  this  voyage,  duly  mourned  his 
death,  carried  the  body  for  burial  to  Manila,  married  there, 
and  sailing  for  Mexico  lived  there  happily  ever  after. 

Such  was  the  alarm  caused  by  the  presence  of  Drake  in  the 
Pacific,  that  the  viceroy  of  Peru  sent  against  him  Pedro  Sar- 
miento,  who  in  the  pursuit  entered  and  examined  the  strait  of 
Magellan,  and  on  his  return  recommended  that  it  be  fortified 
by  Spain  so  as  to  prevent  the  passage  of  strangers.  An  expe- 
dition was  accordingly  sent  thither  by  Philip  II,  and  in  1582 
the  settlements  of  Jesus  and  San  Felipe  were  .founded;  but 
most  of  the  colonists  perished  from  famine,  and  the  eminently 
Spanish  idea  of  thus  placing  a  guard  at  the  eastern  gate  to 
keep  all  the  world  out  of  the  Pacific  ocean  was  abandoned. 

Many  are  the  romantic  sea-adventures  related  in  waters 
north  and  south,  how  Captain  Kidd  was  sent  by  good  Scotch- 
men to  catch  pirates,  and  himself  turned  pirate  and  was  caught 
instead;  how  William  Phips  sought  and  found  a  wrecked 
Spanish  treasure-ship,  and  took  from  it  32  tons  of  silver,  and 
other  things  worth  in  all  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars.  All 
round  the  world,  in  all  ages  and  nations,  pirates  were  the 
pioneers  of  progress.  The  tales  of  buccaneers  might  be  retold 
on  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia  with  no  loss  of  horrors.  All  the 
islands  along  shore  were  infested  by  pirates.  Among  others 
a  favorite  rendezvous  was  the  Chusan  archipelago,  where  upon 
the  capture  of  a  rice-junk  or  sugar  fleet  the  captors  gave  the 
gods  an  entertainment  as  a  thank-offering.  The  pirates  plied 
their  craft  in  fleets  of  swift  boats,  and  snapped  fingers  of  de- 
fiance at  the  war-junks,  whose  pilots  would  thereupon  make  a 
pretence  of  pursuit. 

Brigandage  on  land  and  piracy  and  smuggling  on  the  sea 
still  obtain  in  eastern  Asia.  Even  at  the  British  commercial 
metropolis  of  Hongkong  a  police  force  is  quite  necessary  in 
the  harbor,  where  the  thieves  move  hither  and  thither  in 


516  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

swift  pinnaces,  as  in  the  streets  of  the  city.  Since  the  earliest 
times  pirates  have  been  protected  by  the  mandarins  of  China, 
who  shared  in  their  plunder,  and  when  foreigners  appeared 
and  refused  to  be  robbed  and  murdered  in  this  manner,  gov- 
ernment officials  were  by  no  means  active  in  suppressing  pira- 
cy. As  late  as  1885  the  British  steamer  Greyhound  was  capt- 
ured within  sixty  miles  of  Hongkong  by  pirates  who  had 
shipped  as  passengers.  In  1887  there  were  three  piratical  at- 
tacks within  a  week,  and  in  1890  the  steamer  Namoa  was 
captured  by  pirates. 

Piracy,  once  so  common  in  the  world  was  later  confined 
for  the  most  part  to  the  waters  of  southeastern  Asia.  Con- 
spicuous here  were  the  Sulus,  daring  and  skilful  and  as  merci- 
less as  other  Mohammedans,  or  even  as  Spanish  Christians. 
Their  proas,  of  from  ten  to  thirty  tons  in  size,  were  rigged 
with  both  oars  and  sails,  so  that  they  might  be  propelled  for- 
ward or  backward  with  equal  facility.  They  would  not  attack 
a  protected  cruiser,  but  to  unarmed  small  craft  laden  with 
merchandise  they  showed  no  mercy.  Of  the  booty,  one-quarter 
went  by  law  to  the  sultan  and  council  of  nobles,  the  latter 
furnishing  the  arms  and  ammunition,  and  receiving  pay  in 
captives,  of  whom  they  made  slaves.  Piracy  was  the  chief 
occupation  of  the  nation  not  long  since,  but  the  business  has 
fallen  off  of  late  years. 

As  an  occupation  it  suits  the  genius  of  Asiatic  peoples,  and 
beside  the  horrible  deeds  in  the  China  sea,  those  of  the  Medi- 
terranean were  tame  indeed.  The  true  state  of  things  here 
was  not  suspected  until  after  the  first  opening  of  treaty  ports 
in  1842,  when  merchant  ships  sailing  from  Singapore  for 
Hongkong  disappeared, — not  from  storm  or  earthquake, — and 
were  never  heard  of  again.  It  was  useless  to  appeal  to  the 
Chinese  authorities,  as  their  pirates  were  as  hard  on  them  as 
on  others.  Indeed,  there  is  little  patriotism  in  piracy.  It 
was  not  altogether  an  unpleasant  pastime  for  Englishmen, 
pirate  hunting  in  Asia,  and  should  be  as  good  sport  as  tiger 
hunting  in  Africa,  Their  swarming  ground  in  those  days  was 
150  miles  of  coast  north  of  Hongkong,  between  Swatau  and 
Hainan,  where  they  had  fortified  stations,  and  whence  they 
could  send  out  50  or  100  junks  under  an  admiral  at  a  mo- 
ment's notice.  The  junks  were  from  50  to  400  tons  burden, 
and  mounted  from  six  to  twenty  guns,  with  six  men  to  a  gun. 


THE  LOG  BOOKS  OF  THE  PIKATES         517 

The  English  government  for  a  time  paid  a  reward  of  £10  for 
a  dead  pirate  and  £1  for  a  live  one,  which  proves  that  some 
men  are  more  valuable  dead  than  alive.  When,  however,  in 
1849  Admiral  Hay  with  the  Columbine,  and  assisted  by  some 
other  ships,  destroyed  with  great  slaughter  two  pirate  fleets, 
of  20  and  64  junks  respectively,  the  head-money  threatened 
to  bankrupt  the  British  nation;  the  regulation  was  discon- 
tinued, and  after  that  pirates  must  be  killed  purely  for  pleas- 
ure. 

Li  Ma  Hong  was  a  famous  Chinese  pirate  in  the  days  of 
the  second  governor  of  the  Philippines.  Descending  on  the 
islands  in  1594  with  70  large  ships,  he  entered  Manila  bay, 
and  seizing  the  city,  incarcerated  the  leading  men  in  the  cita- 
del. But  rallying,  the  Spaniards  bravely  attacked  and  de- 
feated the  pirates,  burning  their  fleet  at  the  Pangasinam  river. 
Li  Ma  Hong  escaped  in  an  open  boat  to  a  desert  island,  where 
he  died.  Another  Chinese  pirate  chief  was  Koxinga,  previ- 
ously mentioned  in  this  volume,  who  in  1662  threatened  Ma- 
nila with  a  large  fleet.  Fearing  lest  the  invaders  should  find 
aid  and  sympathy  among  their  countrymen  on  the  islands,  the 
Spaniards  seized  and  slaughtered1 40,000  Chinese,  to  prevent 
their  doing  wrong  in  case  they  should  wish  to  do  so. 

But  it  was  their  own  subjects  of  Sulu,  whose  sultans  were 
pirates  by  profession,  that  caused  the  Spaniards  the  greatest 
annoyance,  and  that  their  power  was  broken  about  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century  was  owing  to  the  English.  Dur- 
ing the  height  of  their  maritime  supremacy,  it  is  said  that  the 
sultans  of  Sulu  collected  tribute  from  1,000  boats,  large  and 
small,  aside  from  the  vessels  of  their  own  200,000  subjects. 
Their  sway  extended  over  nearly  the  whole  of  Borneo  and 
Mindanao,  besides  the  islands  of  Palavan,  Panguitarang,  Tawi 
Tawi  and  the  Basilans.  Fast-sailing  Sulu  ships  swarmed 
about  the  islands  of  the  archipelago,  entering  their  straits  and 
rivers,  making  easy  prey  of  the  natives  and  their  effects,  but 
rejoicing  specially  over  the  advent  of  a  rich  foreign  merchant- 
man, particularly  if  somewhat  disabled  after  a  long  voyage, 
which  was  not  unfrequently  the  case. 

Those,  however,  who  sailed  in  Sulu  ships  were  not  all  Sulus. 
Among  the  Balabac  pirates  who  were  beaten  back  from  the 
walls  of  Manila  in  1851  were  some  Spaniards  and  Portuguese. 
These  renegades  not  only  fought  well  but  taught  the  Sulus 


518  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

how  to  fight.  They  went  forth  in  battle  array,  the  sultan  in 
his  flagship  carrying  six-pounder  guns,  guns  and  ships  for 
their  navy  being  taken  from  the  enemy  as  required.  The 
Mindanao  pirates  controlled  the  gold  mines  of  that  island, 
which  enabled  them  to  bring  from  Canton  all  the  munitions 
and  material  they  required  for  their  business. 


CHAPTER    XXI 

THE   TERRESTRIAL   PARADISE 

IN  the  southern  centre  of  this  ocean  sea,  at  a  point  antipo- 
dal to  Mount  Sion  in  Jerusalem,  is  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  of 
Dante,  with  its  high  conical  mountain  of  Purgatory,  round 
which  run  seven  terraces  whereon  are  expiated  the  seven 
deadly  sins,  stairways  being  cut  in  the  rugged  mountain  side 
which  lead  upward  from  terrace  to  terrace  until  the  summit 
is  reached,  whereon  stands  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  celestial 
city,  though  still  of  earth.  By  this  half  heathen  though 
wholly  Dantean  cosmogony,  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  finds 
place  southwest  from  Pitcairn  island,  rising  steep  from  the 
obtuse  waters  just  south  of  Tahiti.  And  not  poets  alone, 
whether  poets  of  hell  or  heaven,  seek  to  mingle  with  South 
sea  breezes  a  breath  of  the  celestial.  Even  the  prosy  German 
Hitter  must  bring  down  from  above  a  name  for  this  broad  belt 
of  sparkling  isles  which  constitutes  the  Polynesian  archipel- 
ago, and  which  he  calls  the  milky  way  of  ocean. 

On  many  of  these  islands,  which  are  now  known  so  well,  we 
should  be  able  to  find  a  terrestrial  paradise,  when  Dante  found 
his  in  the  dark,  on  the  other  side  of  the  world,  not  even  know- 
ing that  the  world  had  another  side.  The  island  of  Pitcairn, 
which  seems  to  be  the  nearest  land  to  this  enchanted  spot, 
and  is  as  near  to  heaven  as  any  other  island  of  the  South  sea, 
even  this  sea  of  paradise,  is  mostly  rock  and  mountain,  with 
but  little  soil  suitable  for  cultivation.  The  size  of  Eden  in 
the  Euphrates  country  is  not  known,  never  having  been  sur- 
veyed; but  it  is  difficult  to  understand  when  so  little  land  will 
make  a  paradise  why  it  is  that  France  and  Germany  want  so 
much.  It  may  be  that  the  two  nations  have  more  than  two 
hundred  who  expect  heaven;  and  Pitcairn  island  has  a  capac- 
ity for  only  two  hundred.  What  kept  the  natural  increase  of 
population  down  all  these  ages,  unless  it  was  the  alligators,  is 

519 


520  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

as  difficult  to  tell  as  who  inhabited  Eden  after  the  occupancy 
of  Adam;  the  fact  remains,  however,  that  in  1856  the  island 
was  regarded  small  for  the  200  inhabitants  by  certain  good 
Englishmen,  who  carried  them  all  to  Norfolk  island,  which 
though  seven  times  larger  than  Pitcairn  island  is  itself  only 
fourteen  square  miles  in  area. 

For  their  trouble  the  good  Englishmen  naturally  took  Pit- 
cairn  island  for  themselves,  thus  securing  something  of 
heaven,  besides  Australia,  in  these  South  seas;  but  unfortu- 
nately the  Pitcairn  islanders  were  not  satisfied  with  Norfolk 
island,  and  gradually  found  their  way  back  home  as  best  they 
were  able.  In  Norfolk  island  the  people  were  too  wicked; 
they  were  wicked  with  the  wickedness  of  Europe,  which  was 
worse  than  any  South  sea  wickedness  these  innocents  had  ever 
met.  At  Norfolk  island  people  got  drunk,  blasphemed,  gath- 
ered diseases,  and  would  even  sometimes  kill,  abominations 
all  unknown  at  Pitcairn  island.  A  few  years  later  an  attempt 
was  made  to  deport  them  to  Tahiti,  but  they  liked  this  no  bet- 
ter, and  returned  to  Pitcairn  island,  where  they  dwell  to  this 
day. 

Slow  sailing  vessels  on  their  way  between  Australia  and 
South  America  sometimes  stop  at  Pitcairn  island,  it  being  one 
of  the  few  places  in  this  quarter  where  fresh  water  may  be 
obtained. 

Small  as  is  the  island  of  Pitcairn,  it  has  a  history,  great  per- 
haps as  that  of  Greenland,  and  this  aside  from  what  Dante 
did  for  it.  This  history  begins  in  detail  with  the  appearance 
there  in  1787  of  William  Bligh,  commissioned  by  England  to 
sail  into  the  South  sea,  and  procure  if  possible  from  some  of 
its  islands  plants  which  might  prove  useful  to  the  colonists 
of  the  West  Indies,  who  were  just  then  suffering  for  want  of 
something  to  grow  on  their  rich  lands  which  the  world 
wanted  more  than  sugar  and  tobacco,  of  which  they  had 
enough.  Bligh  was  told  to  bring  back  bread-fruit,  and  the 
plants  thereof,  and  any  other  strange  plants  which  were  suita- 
ble to  the  climate,  and  might  prove  sources  of  wealth  to  the 
West  Indies. 

Bligh's  voyage  is  called  by  the  good  Englishmen  aforesaid 
as  one  of  the  most  memorable  ever  made.  Let  us  see.  He 
sailed  in  the  ship  Bounty  from  Spithead  December  23,  1787, 
and  reached  Tahiti  October  26,  1788, — ten  months,  memora- 


521 

ble  for  time  of  sailing  at  all  events.  Not  being  an  island  agri- 
culturist Bligh  did  not  know,  and  his  government  did  not 
know,  that  bread-fruit  trees  cannot  be  transplanted  at  that 
season  of  the  year.  Now  Bligh  was  not  a  man  to  worry  over 
the  decrees  of  providence,  and  wonder  why  bread-fruit  trees 
should  not  get  themselves  ready  for  transplantation  to  the 
West  Indies  in  October  as  well  as  at  any  other  time.  He  sim- 
ply sat  himself  down  to  wait,  for  Bligh  was  a  good  waiter.  He 
knew  that  if  he  sat  long  enough  six  months  would  come 
round,  when  the  plants  with  safety  might  be  removed. 

But  six  months  is  a  long  time  for  idle  hands  in  an  island 
next  door  to  paradise.  And  the  hands  of  Bligh's  Jack  tars 
were  not  idle;  the  women  were  too  fresh  and  pretty  for  the 
sailors  to  keep  their  hands  off  from  them;  and  when  the  time 
for  sailing  came  the  crew  found  itself  greatly  married,  after 
the  custom  of  the  country,  each  with  half  a  dozen  wives, 
which  was  only  one  new  one  a  month.  Now  those  were  the 
days  of  cat-o'-nine  tails  on  ship-board,  and  as  a  cure  for  love 
Captain  Bligh  deemed  the  implement  effective.  So  when  he 
had  driven  his  much-married  men  all  on  board,  and  had  put 
to  sea  with  1015  bread-fruit  trees,  besides  other  plants,  and 
complaints  grew  loud  and  threatening,  the  knotted  cord  was 
plied  bravely,  which  only  made  matters  worse.  Six  wives 
each!  And  within  one  door  to  Dante's  terrestrial  paradise; 
though  they  did  not  know  this;  but  rather  thought  thus  leav- 
ing their  loves  to  be  that  other  place  of  Dante's.  At  all 
events,  within  twenty-four  days  after  sailing,  mutiny  broke 
forth.  Arming  themselves  from  the  ship's  weapons,  the  sail- 
ors stormed  the  cabin,  and  made  the  captain  and  officers  pris- 
oners. These,  with  eighteen  men  who  refused  to  join  the 
mutineers,  were  sent  adrift  in  the  ship's  launch,  provisioned 
with  bread,  water,  pork,  and  a  little  spirits.  With  all  this 
they  suffered  severely,  for  though  they  had  a  compass,  and 
one  would  think  should  easily  find  land,  they  were  in  the  open 
sea  46  days,  and  rowed  or  sailed  3618  miles  before  they  came 
in  a  starving  condition  to  land,  which  proved  to  be  the  island 
of  Timor,  whence  they  made  their  way  to  England. 

Naught  of  England  wanted  the  mutineers,  however,  for 
naught  but  probable  hanging  awaited  them  there.  Bligh  and 
his  party  they  supposed  would  perish  upon  the  ocean,  in 
which  event  nothing  of  the  mutiny  would  be  known  in  Eng- 


522  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

land,  and  there  would  be  no  immediate  fear  from  that  quarter. 
Their  plan  now  was  to  make  for  Tahiti,  gather  up  some  of  the 
pieces  of  their  broken  families,  and  seek  and  take  possession 
of  some  unknown  island.  Arrived  again  at  Tahiti,  while 
more  than  half  the  crew  were  ashore  completing  arrange- 
ments for  their  final  departure,  the  Bounty  sailed  away  and 
left  them  there,  having  besides  eight  of  the  crew  eighteeen 
natives  on  board.  As  nothing  could  be  heard  of  them,  the 
ship  was  supposed  to  have  foundered.  Three  years  after- 
ward, a  British  man-of-war  in  search  of  them  found  that  por- 
tion of  the  crew  which  had  been  left  on  Tahiti,  and  started 
back  with  them  in  irons.  Four  were  drowned  during  a  wreck; 
of  the  ten  remaining,  when  brought  to  trial  three  were 
hanged,  and  seven  acquitted,  being  able  to  prove  that  they 
were  forced  to  join  the  mutiny  on  peril  of  their  lives. 

Time  passed  by  until  in  1809,  Folger,  an  American  ship 
captain,  returned  from  a  cruise  in  the  South  sea,  and  told  a 
story  for  the  truth  of  which  it  was  difficult  to  find  believers. 
He  said  that  the  year  previous  he  had  landed  on  an  islet,  the 
eastern  dot  of  the  Tahitian  archipelago,  Pitcairn  island,  out 
of  the  line  of  travel,  and  there  had  found  a  strange  commu- 
nity. There  was  one  man,  a  sailor,  called  Alexander  Smith, 
and  the  sole  survivor  of  the  crew  of  the  Bounty.  With  him 
were  some  of  the  women  brought  from  Tahiti.  Fearful  of 
discovery,  the  mutineers  had  run  the  ship  into  a  little  bay, 
and  after  taking  from  her  all  they  desired  they  burned  her. 
Quarrels  arose  from  time  to  time,  with  occasional  killings, 
until  finally  only  Smith  remained,  which  fact  of  survival 
might  raise  suspicions  against  him  were  it  not  that  he  had 
ere  this  become  religious,  turned  minister,  preached  and 
taught  the  catechism  to  the  children  of  the  mutineers;  and  so 
let  us  hope  that  his  sins  which  were  many  were  forgiven  him. 

"  Something  yet  to  be  understood,"  said  Sancho  of  chiv- 
alry. So  say  I  with  regard  to  these  vast  Pacific  waters,  whose 
isles  and  edges  are  rimmed  with  romance,  and  gold,  and 
pearls,  and  precious  stones.  Spanish  cavaliers  have  sailed 
these  seas,  and  English  knights  have  pirated  thereon,  and 
Dutchmen  prowled,  and  Portuguese  fought,  all  the  while  the 
simple  savages  suffering  death  and  the  hell-tortures  of  en- 
croaching civilization,  because  like  children  they  failed  to 
understand  the  application  of  Christian  ethics  to  native 


THE    TERRESTRIAL    PARADISE  523 

creeds.  That  however  is  but  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the  car 
of  progress;  it  is  ordained  that  all  the  trophies  of  savagism 
shall  be  transferred  to  it.  If  Dante  is  right  in  placing  Purga- 
tory in  the  middle  of  the  Pacific,  with  heaven  above  and  hell 
beneath,  then  it  seems  fitting  that  the  border  of  this  vast 
ocean  should  be  compounded  of  volcanoes  and  minerals. 

Spain's  conquest  of  America  was  not  a  proceeding  to  be 
proud  of,  and  yet  the  conquerors  were  proud  of  it.  To  them 
it  was  gold  and  glory  and  godliness,  the  best  of  this  world  and 
of  the  next;  though  in  reality  it  was  but  theft  and  murder, 
theft  of  lands  with  whatever  they  contained  and  murder  of 
the  inhabitants,  men  women  and  children,  and  proselyting  at 
the  point  of  the  sword,  with  treachery  and  much  cruelty.  So 
God  was  served  and  Christ's  teachings  disseminated.  And  it 
was  a  new  world,  even  as  the  Pacific  was  and  is  now  a  new 
ocean.  Yet  America  was  not  the  first  country  to  be  called  the 
New  World, nor  were  the  Spaniards  the  first  to  use  those  words. 
Long  before  this  country  was  discovered,  the  Venetians  ap- 
plied the  term  to  the  old  world  of  Asia.  For,  under  the  pas- 
sage to  the  church  of  San  Lorenzo,  on  one  of  the  islets  of 
Gemelle,  are  inscribed  these  words.  "  Sotto  1'angiporto  e 
sepolto  quel  Marco  Polo,  cognominato  Milionone,  il  quale 
scrisse  i  viaggi  del  mondo  nuovo,  e  che  fu  il  primo  avanti 
Cristoforo  Colombo  che  ritrovasse  nuovi  paesi." 

The  Japanese  will  tell  you  that  the  paradise  of  the  world 
envelopes  their  islands,  that  there  one  may  have  one's  heart's 
desire.  If  one  likes  cold,  there  is  Hokaido;  if  the  heated  air 
is  grateful,  go  to  Liukin.  Rain  is  everywhere  abundant; 
tropical  plants  grow  luxuriantly,  and  those  which  like  best 
the  frigid  zones  find  them,  while  there  is  not  a  tree  or  shrub 
in  the  flora  of  the  world  which  cannot  find  congenial  habita- 
tion in  Japan.  In  the  evolutions  of  the  ages  it  has  come  to 
pass  that  the  world's  two  great  civilizations,  the  newest  and 
the  oldest,  the  European  and  the  Asiatic,  are  brought  face  to 
face  on  either  side  of  a  great  sea.  Starting  from  the  same 
hypothetical  cradle  of  the  race,  and  taking  opposite  direc- 
tions, one  going  east  and  the  other  west,  both  have  reached 
their  limit,  so  far  as  the  journey  can  be  made  by  land,  and 
have  now  to  reconcile  old  difficulties  and  meet  new  issues. 

From  famed  Cathay,  whence  the  brothers  Polo  in  the  thir- 
teenth century  brought  back  to  their  opulent  Venice  that  en- 


524:  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

trancing  vision  of  the  Orient,  with  its  vitalized  charms  and 
vivid  colorings,  far  away  toward  the  east  and  south  stretched 
this  earthly  paradise,  embracing  islands  and  main  land,  coral 
reefs  and  languid  sunny  seas.  In  these  isles  were  gold  and 
gems,  which  for  the  most  part  were  left  unheeded  by  the 
naked  humanity  who  dwelt  there,  like  the  first  pair  in  Eden 
caring  only  for  the  fruit,  always  ripe  and  luscious,  and  partic- 
ularly for  such  as  was  forbidden;  and  none  being  forbidden, 
they  ate  what  they  liked,  and  without  special  cursing,  yet 
they  had  their  serpent.  All  along  their  route,  from  the  city 
of  the  sea  north  and  eastward,  they  journeyed  as  on  a  high- 
way toward  heaven,  these  Polos,  the  broad  sandy  plains  of 
Persia,  the  sun-lit  plateaus  and  dark  gorges  of  Badakhshan, 
the  bejeweled  waters  of  Khotan,  and  the  flowering  Mongolian 
steppes,  all  meeting  their  dazzled  vision  in  glorious  succes- 
sion. They  were  the  first  of  Europe  to  see  and  tell  of  China, 
with  its  swarming  people  and  many  industries,  its  wealth  and 
wide  area,  its  great  cities  and  rivers  and  the  ships  that  filled 
its  waters.  There  were  Tibet  and  Burmah  with  their  golden 
pagodas,  and  Laos  and  Siam  and  Cochin  China,  cities  of  pal- 
aces golden-roofed  and  sparkling  with  gems.  There  was  the 
Indian  archipelago,  aromatic  with  spices,  the  fragrant  Java, 
and  much-governed  Sumatra,  Nicobar,  and  Andaman,  with 
their  unclothed  natives,  and  the  island  pearl  Ceylon,  with  the 
only  Adam's  tomb  and  the  holy  mountain. 

Then  came  Sir  John  Mandeville,  who  in  1356  returned  to 
England  after  an  absence  of  thirty-four  years  in  the  Far  East, 
confirming  alike  the  truth  and  falsehoods  of  the  Venetians, 
and  indeed  adding  somewhat  thereto,  for  he  would  not  be  out- 
done in  story-telling  by  any  other  traveller  of  any  nation 
whatsoever.  In  Latin,  in  French,  and  in  the  purest  English 
of  the  day, .he  wrote:  "I,  John  Maundevylle,  knight,  alle  be 
it  I  be  not  worthi,  that  was  born  in  England,  in  the  Town  of 
Seynt  Albones,  passed  the  See,  in  the  zeer  of  our  Lord  Jesu 
Crist  MCCCXXII,  in  the  Day  of  Seynt  Michelle;  and  hidre 
to  have  ben  long  tyme  over  the  See,  and  have  seyn  and  gon 
thorghe  manye  dyverse  Londes,  and  many  Provynces  and 
Kingdomes  and  lies,  and  have  passed  thorghe  Tartarye,  Per- 
cye,  Ermonye,  the  litylle  and  the  grete;  thorghe  Lybye,  Cal- 
dee,  and  a  gret  partie  Ethiope,  thorghe  Amazoyne,  Inde  the 
and  the  more,  a  gret  partie,  and  thoroghe  out  many 


THE    TERRESTRIAL    PARADISE  525 

othere  lies  that  ben  abouten  Inde."  Writing  five  hundred 
years  later,  M.  Elisee  Reclus  remarks:  "  The  countries  of 
the  old  world  which  show  the  richest  luxuriance  and  the  most 
exuberant  vitality,  lie  between  the  straits  of  Gibraltar  and  the 
archipelago  of  Japan." 

When  we  consider  that  the  civilizations  of  Egypt,  the  Eu- 
phrates, and  the  Mediterranean  knew  neither  the  polar  nor 
the  equatorial  world,  knew  no  great  ocean  other  than  the  bor- 
der of  the  Atlantic,  and  no  land  area  greater  than  the  African 
desert,  imagining  the  earth  to  be  no  more  than  half  or  two 
thirds  of  its  actual  size,  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  the  en- 
largement of  mind  which  followed  this  enlargement  of  vision. 
No  wonder  that  Persia,  and  Araby  the  Blessed,  and  India,  and 
the  Spice  islands,  filled  with  visions  of  poetic  fancy,  and 
which  were  all  that  the  world  knew  of  any  thing  truly  tropi- 
cal, were  regarded  as  nearest  akin  to  heaven  of  any  thing 
earthly,  as  also  the  American  and  South  sea  tropics,  with  all 
their  variety  and  luxuriance  of  vegetation,  men  and  animals, 
mountains  and  plains. 

Cradled  in  the  east,  civilization  has  ever  been  tending  west. 
In  an  ocean,  the  last  the  sun  looks  upon,  was  Elysium  and  the 
islands  of  the  Blessed.  All  that  was  best,  all  that  was  fullest 
of  life  and  brightness  was  ever  toward  the  west.  And  ever 
as  culture  moved  westward  it  increased  in  volume  and  inten- 
sity, and  the  new  civilizations  toward  the  west  were  ever 
springing  up  and  taking  the  place  of  those  which  were  dying 
out  at  the  east,  until  finally  chase  was  made  to  the  westward 
for  the  Ophir  of  Hiram,  the  El  Dorado  of  Solomon,  and  the 
Chersonesus  Aurea  of  Ptolemy.  The  Roman  empire  did  not 
extend  eastward  beyond  the  Persian  gulf,  and  little  was 
known  of  lands  or  waters  toward  the  Pacific  until  after  the 
decline  of  the  great  powers  of  southern  and  eastern  Europe,- 
and  the  incursion  of  the  Moguls  into  China.  Prior  to  the 
discoveries  of  new  lands  and  seas  by  the  Europeans  was  a 
period  of  spontaneous  intellectual  development  in  the  direc- 
tion of  great  inventions,  as  gunpowder,  printing,  and  the 
mariner's  compass.  And  now,  reserved  for  this  occasion, 
comes  to  the  aid  of  man  the  all-encircling  ocean,  forceful  in 
its  nobility  and  wonderful  in  its  potentialities. 

Micronesia,  between  latitudes  10°  south  and  11°  north, 
has  642  islands,  and  of  these  the  Carolines  comprise  36  groups, 


526  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

one  of  which  is  the  Pelew,  with  200  isles  and  islets.  The 
speech  of  the  Pelew  people  is  a  bizarre  Malayan,  and  their 
food  is  turtle  and  cocoanut.  They  are  as  warm  for  civil  war 
as  the  Central  Americans,  who  delight  in  revolutions.  North- 
east of  the  Pelews  some  300  miles  distant  is  Yap,  the  coral- 
reef  surrounding  which  is  35  by  five  miles  in  dimensions, 
within  which  are  swamps  filled  with  taro  and  surrounded  by 
relics  of  a  departed  civilization.  There  are  plainly  to  be  seen 
old  embankments,  artificial  terraces,  and  stone-paved  roads, 
council  lodges  with  carved  stone  pillars,  and  the  like.  Yaps 
to  the  number  of  8,000  live  here  happily,  on  the  usual  tropical 
food,  fighting  the  Ruks  for  pastime.  The  Chinese  could 
easily  have  set  up  for  them  their  monumental  remains,  being 
themselves  of  antiquity,  and  industrious,  and  nothing  very 
wonderful  about  it. 

Now,  there  are  ruins  of  an  extinct  civilization  in  Guate- 
mala, which  may  have  been  the  work  of  the  Chinese,  so  far  as 
the  possibility  of  their  working  their  way  across  or  around  the 
Pacific  is  concerned;  but  they  were  probably  not  done  by  Asi- 
atics, as  there  appears  to  be  little  that  is  Asiatic  about  them. 
There  are  theories  afloat  that  America  was  peopled  from  Asia, 
and  other  theories  that  Asia  was  peopled  from  America,  one 
being  as  valuable  as  the  other  because  both  are  worthless, 
neither  being  susceptible  of  proof.  Usually  new  and  strange 
peoples  are  referred  by  so-called  savants  to  ancient  civiliza- 
tions having  some  literature,  as  in  that  case  endless  analogies 
may  be  brought  forward  with  but  little  trouble.  But  too 
often  sages  forget  that  analogies  work  two  ways,  if  they  prove 
that  one  people  is  like  to  another,  how  can  they  tell  which 
was  the  father  and  which  the  son?  America  is  called  the 
New  World;  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  prove  that  Africa  was 
not  peopled  from  South  America,  or  that  the  Babel-builders 
had  not  their  origin  in  Greenland. 

Where  people  thus  live  without  coercion  and  without  re- 
straint, crimes  might  be  expected  to  be  more  frequent  and  of 
fiercer  nature  than  are  found  among  the  cultured  nations  of 
Christendom.  But  such  is  not  the  case.  Whether  it  is  owing 
to  the  soft  air  of  environment,  and  the  mild  nature  of  the  in- 
habitants, too  lazy  as  a  rule  to  be  roused  into  anger,  there  are 
not  enough  of  men  and  women  with  natures  of  such  moral 
obliquity  as  to  constitute  a  criminal  class.  The  very  bad  ones 


THE  TERRESTRIAL    PARADISE  527 

in  due  time  get  themselves  killed  off,  which  way  has  its  ad- 
vantages over  long  trials  in  criminal  courts,  whose  primary 
purpose,  it  is  the  fashion  to  say,  is  too  often  to  defeat  the  ends 
of  justice. 

If  analogies  are  of  value  as  proof  of  race  relationship,  it 
should  be  so  regarding  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  whose  bloom  is 
of  earth,  and  the  fruit  of  paradise,  which  blossoms  only  in 
paradise.  Now  from  earliest  times  it  has  been  held  in  East 
India  legends  that  the  banana,  which  grows  in  all  these  isl- 
ands, is  the  fruit  of  paradise.  Some  hold  it  is  one  with  the 
fig,  as  in  the  Hebal  of  Gerarde  we  find  written:  "  The  Gre- 
cians and  Christians  which  inhabit  Syria,  and  the  Jews  also, 
suppose  it  to  be  that  tree  of  whose  fruit  Adam  did  taste." 
The  Mohammedans  believe  also  that  "  this  is  the  fruit  which 
Allah  the  Father  forbade  Adam  and  Eve  to  eat,  for  imme- 
diately they  ate  they  perceived  their  nakedness,  and  to  cover 
themselves  employed  the  leaves  of  this  tree,  which  are  more 
suitable  for  the  purpose  than  any  other." 

No  one  island  of  the  South  sea  can  be  taken  as  typical  of 
the  whole,  nor  can  any  one  climate;  though  all  are  tropical, 
environments  are  different.  On  every  side  are  evidences  of 
the  wonderful  prodigality  of  nature,  but  nature's  ways  are  not 
always  the  same.  There  are  forests  of  precious  woods,  fields 
of  useful  plants,  mountains  seamed  with  metals,  and  bays 
lined  with  coral  and  gems.  This  isle-dotted  ocean  is  a  sphere 
of  beauty,  captivating  the  senses  and  absorbing  the  soul. 
And  the  glory  of  its  waters  is  equalled  only  by  the  vegetal 
sensuality  of  the  land.  The  natives,  lightly  clothed  and  light 
of  heart,  know  not  sorrow  or  suffering  in  the  civilized  sense, 
happy  in  wanting  so  little.  A  native  habitation  in  the  inte- 
rior of  Luzon  is  made  of  bamboo,  thatched  with  palm-leaves, 
and  set  on  posts  five  feet  from  the  ground,  thus  securing  free- 
dom from  vermin  and  free  circulation  of  air.  In  the  rice 
fields  are  the  busy  laborers  in  their  scanty  garb,  and  every 
where  is  the  uncouth  water  buffalo,  some  laboring  at  heavy 
loads,  and  others  wallowing  to  their  huge  satisfaction  in  their 
muddy  pools.  Even  though  they  show  Chinese  blood,  the 
native  women  are  not  without  claims  to  beauty,  while  the  men 
are  bold  and  intelligent  in  appearance.  The  people  and 
their  surroundings  are  cleanly. 

Charming  indeed  is  nature  here,  though  cruel  and  treach- 


5:<!8  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

6rous  at  times  as  nature  is  every  where.  Sea  and  land  and 
sky  wear  each  its  own  imperial  robe,  varying  it  to  fit  their 
various  moods.  We  talk  of  paradise,  which  means  all  that  is 
fairest  and  happiest,  earthly  or  heavenly,  and  for  fear  we  make 
too  bright  a  picture  we  straightway  intermix  the  good  with 
evil  things. 

Thus  it  became  natural,  that  is  to  say  like  earth  if  earthly, 
like  all  we  know  of  heaven  if  heavenly. 

A  writhing  sea  mystery  is  the  palolo,  appearing  at  intervals 
as  a  worm  at  certain  coral  reefs  in  the  south  Pacific,. more  par- 
ticularly at  Samoa,  Tonga,  and  Fiji,  the  islanders  gorging 
themselves  thereon,  after  which  the  remnant  of  the  swarm 
vanishes.  It  might  be  called  the  calendar  worm,  as  it  has 
some  way  of  reckoning  times  and  seasons  so  accurately  that 
the  Samoans  date  their  year  from  its  coming.  They  have  two 
years  in  fact  every  twelvemonth,  the  vaipalolo  or  worm  year, 
and  the  vaitoelau  or  trade-wind  year.  The  ocean  hereabout 
swarms  with  turtles,  smaller  but  as  delicate  food  as  the  green 
turtle  of  the  West  Indies. 

The  wealth  of  these  islanders  consists  chiefly  in  what  they 
do  not  want.  They  like  fruit  better  than  fat;  fruit  comes 
easy,  fat  is  difficult  to  obtain;  they  are  happy  and  wealthy  and 
wise  because  they  do  not  spurn  the  fruit  and  struggle  to  ob- 
tain the  fat.  Thus  they  escape  those  miseries  of  civilization, 
which  come  from  indifference  to  fruit  and  a  too  great  delight 
in  fat.  For  these  poor  paradisiacal  people  the  fruit  is  always 
ready;  there  need  be  no  anxiety  regarding  it,  no  fear  that 
when  the  summer  is  over  the  fruit  will  be  gone,  for  it  is  always 
summer  and  the  fruit  never  fails.  And  as  for  dress,  English 
broadcloths  and  French  velvets  are  too  warm;  the  men  care 
nothing  for  clothes,  while  the  women  are  still  satisfied  to  be 
gowned  by  nature,  the  style  extreme  decolette,  and  the  color 
bordering  on  black. 

The  islanders  love  sleep,  and  they  sleep  without  knowing  it. 
Sleeping  or  waking  life  is  the  same  to  them  if  they  have 
enough  to  eat.  And  this  as  a  rule  they  have,  without  troub- 
ling themselves  about  forbidden  apples.  Yet  a  good  feast 
they  dearly  love,  notwithstanding  the  general  fill  of  bananas 
and  bread-fruit. 

From  these  dreamy  isles  the  soft  air  comes  pungent  with 
verdure,  while  through  the  transparent  blue  of  the  water  the 


529 

secrets  of  the  deep  sea  may  be  read  as  in  a  book.  The  edges 
of  the  isles  are  fringed  with  cocoanut,  palm,  and  banana  trees, 
while  the  hills  roll  off  into  the  interior,  sometimes  to  rest, 
sometimes  to  rise  out  of  the  heated  tropical  atmosphere  into 
realms  of  eternal  snow.  Over  all,  white  cottony  clouds  float 
lazily  about,  bringing  deeper  in  relief  the  deep  blue  of  the 
open  sky.  Seldom  is  the  heat  excessive  before  a  breeze  fresh 
from  the  sea.  Where  the  islands  are  mountainous  the  rain  is 
almost  incessant.  During  severe  storms  rivers  overflow  their 
banks  and  marshes  become  lakes. 

Here  grow  all  the  year  round  bright  green  cryptogams,  the 
sea  plants  and  sea  mosses  which  in  the  Atlantic  die  from  cold 
in  winter,  the  finer  and  more  delicate  algae  hiding  themselves 
in  deep  water,  some  floating  on  the  surface  or  clinging  to  the 
rocks.  Also  floating  on  the  surface  is  sometimes  seen  the 
giant  kelp,  1,000  feet  long,  and  so  thick  that  it  has  been  taken 
by  mariners  for  a  sea-serpent.  The  birds  of  paradise  find 
their  home  in  New  Guinea,  but  the  people  are  any  thing  but 
paradisiacal.  They  have  arts  and  manufactures,  the  people 
1  mean,  and  so  have  ants  and  tarantulas.  This  is  the  country 
of  parrots  and  bark  cloth  and  rude  wood  carvings. 

The  Dutch  in  Java  teach  the  world  how  to  manage  success- 
fully distant  tropical  islands.  The  island  is  every  foot  of  it 
a  garden  of  beauty,  its  population  under  the  culture  system 
having  increased  from  5,500,000  in  1826  to  24,000,000  in 
1898.  In  the  government  of  Java  the  native  rulers  were  re- 
tained, and  under  the  name  of  regent  each  was  given  a  district 
to  govern,  with  a  Dutch  assistant  resident,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  give  advice  only,  but  whose  advice  was  always  followed. 

Wake  island  is  now  regarded  somewhat  in  the  light  of  a 
freak  or  phantom.  Here  to-day  and  away  to-morrow,  it  never 
has  been  inhabited  so  far  as  known,  that  is  to  say  for  any 
length  of  time,  as  it  has  a  way  of  occasionally  disappearing 
beneath  the  water,  which  tends  to  drown  out  the  inhabitants, 
if  any.  What  the  United  States  government  wants  with  this 
island  is  difficult  to  say,  unless  it  be  to  give  it  to  the  Germans, 
who  are  not  above  taking  anything.  One  Fourth-of-July  an 
enthusiastic  American  officer  set  flying  the  United  States  flag 
upon  this  island,  which  happened  that  day  to  be  above  water, 
and  that  is  how  we  came  to  own  it.  Englishmen  saw  it  from 
the  deck  of  the  ship  Prince  William  Henry,  in  1796,  and  hav- 


530  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

ing  no  use  for  it  passed  it  by.  The  English  made  a  dot  on 
their  charts  and  wrote  under  it  Halcyon;  the  French  put  on 
their  charts  Ecueil;  Wilkes  saw  and  explored  it,  but  did  not 
think  it  worth  mapping.  It  seems  to  be  a  coral  reef  which 
the  insects  have  not  finished;  if  Germany  will  have  the  pa- 
tience to  wait  until  it  is  completed,  doubtless  the  United 
States  by  that  time  will  be  glad  to  give  it  away,  the  hope  of 
losing  it  having  become  extinguished.  Another  phantom  is 
Falcon  island,  seen  from  the  British  ship  Egeria  in  1889,  and 
said  to  have  been  half  a  mile  by  a  mile  in  size.  A  year  later 
the  captain  of  the  Egeria  looked  and  saw  nothing.  Two 
years  later  the  French  cruiser  Duchaffault  was  there,  and  her 
captain  plainly  saw  Falcon  island;  in  1891  another  French- 
man who  was  there  could  not  see  it,  probably  because  tide- 
water covered  it.  Hainan,  off  the  south  coast  of  China,  on  a 
line  with  Cuba,  is  a  tropical  garden  with  diversified  interior, 
whose  natives  are  still  savages  and  frequently  at  war  with  the 
Chinese  of  the  mainland. 

During  our  war  of  1812,  Captain  David  Porter,  with  the 
United  States  ship  Essex,  rounded  Cape  Horn  and  scoured  the 
Pacific.  Porter  had  obtained  no  leave  and  had  asked  no  money 
from  his  government,  but  placed  himself  in  funds  by  capturing 
a  British  vessel  from  which  he  took  $55,000.  On  entering  the 
Pacific  he  made  first  for  the  Galapagos  islands,  the  rendezvous 
of  British  whalers  in  these  waters,  where  he  took  in  hand 
twelve  ships,  some  of  which  he  retained,  and  sailed  for  Val- 
paraiso, there  to  refit.  He  found  that  the  Chilians  favored 
the  British,  though  they  dare  not  oppose  him.  Hearing  that 
Peruvian  privateers  were  preying  on  American  commerce,  he 
sailed  in  search  of  them,  and  caught  a  Peruvian  with  two 
American  prizes,  which  he  released,  and  after  throwing  into 
the  sea  the  armament  of  the  Peruvian,  sent  her  to  Callao  with 
a  letter  to  the  viceroy  warning  him  to  mend  his  manners. 
Thence  Porter  sailed  for  the  Marquesas,  where  after  capturing 
two  English  prizes  he  arived  in  October,  1813.  Though  dis- 
covered by  Mendana  in  1595,  and  visited  by  Cook  in  1774,  the 
land  remained  undisturbed  and  the  inhabitants  still  in  their 
native  state.  It  was  another  perfect  paradise,  as  Porter 
called  it,  though  war  between  the  islanders  was  raging  at  the 
time;  but  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  without  fighting  there  is 
no  paradise  among  men.  Captain  Porter  then  annexed  the 


531 

group,  changing  the  name  from  Marquesas  to  Madison. 
Leaving  there  as  a  garrison  six  sailors,  who  desired  to  stay, 
Porter  sailed  for  Valparaiso,  where  meeting  with  two  British 
war  vessels,  which  had  been  sent  to  capture  him,  the  frigate 
Phoebe,  36  guns,  Captain  Hillyar,  and  the  Cherub,  22  guns, 
Porter's  superior  in  every  respect,  after  a  severe  engagement 
in  which  150  of  the  225  Americans  were  killed,  and  their  ship 
in  a  sinking  condition,  Porter  lowered  his  flag.  The  sailors 
left  at  the  Marquesas  were  killed  by  the  natives.  In  1842 
France  took  possession  of  the  islands  and  still  holds  them; 
area  480  square  miles,  population  6,000. 

Eli  Jennings  shipped  at  Sag  Harbor  as  a  sailor  on  a  South 
sea  whaler  some  time  in  the  fifties.  Dropping  himself  into 
the  sea  as  the  ship  sailed  one  day  from  Navigator  island,  he 
was  picked  up  by  a  native  boat  and  carried  ashore.  He 
traded  in  cocoanut  oil  and  sandal-wood,  married  a  native  wife, 
and  bought  Quiros  island,  of  the  Samoan  group,  with  gin  at  a 
shilling  bottle  the  square  mile,  which  is  more  than  France  is 
willing  to  pay  for  China  in  missionaries.  Wealth  came,  also 
children.  And  this  is  how  a  Yankee  sailor  found  his  paradise 
in  the  Pacific. 

Part  of  paradise  is  under  water,  that  is  to  say  the  streets  of 
pearl.  In  the  South  sea  pearl-fishing  is  an  occupation,  a  hun- 
dred divers  sometimes  living  together  on  a  schooner  for  five 
months  in  the  year.  From  the  schooner  they  used  in  early 
times  to  go  out  in  different  directions  in  small  boats,  from 
which  they  would  dive,  or  drop  themselves  into  the  water. 
The  naked  Ceylon  diver  uses  a  sinker;  the  Australian  sits  on 
the  edge  of  his  dinghy  vigorously  inflating  his  lungs  for  a  few 
moments  before  letting  himself  into  the  water,  when  he 
quietly  works  himself  to  the  bottom,  where  he  remains  from 
one  to  three  minutes.  Pearling  is  now  done  by  dress-divers, 
who  have  the  advantages  of  going  deeper  and  remaining 
longer  under  water.  At  a  depth  of  from  three  to  eight 
fathoms,  with  modern  appliances,  dress-divers  can  remain  at 
their  work  for  one  or  two  hours;  at  eighteen  fathoms  he  finds 
ten  minutes  quite  long  enough,  owing  to  the  pressure  of  the 
water  and  the  difficulty  of  breathing. 

Pearl-diving  is  a  perilous  occupation,  the  danger  being  con- 
stant of  entanglements  at  the  bottom,  and  the  cutting  of  air- 
pipes  by  the  coral  banks,  not  to  mention  liability  to  deafness, 


532  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

paralysis,  or  death.  As  the  boat  above  is  drifting,  and  the 
diver  is  hastening  hither  and  thither,  not  ^infrequently  his 
lines  get  fouled  on  the  reefs,  and  means  of  communication 
with  the  upper  world  is  cut  off,  and  he  remains  tied  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea  until  death  relieves  him. 

A  Frenchman,  Louis  de  Eougemont,  landed  one  day  in 
1898  on  the  coast  of  Australia,  with  a  strange  tale  of  how  he 
had  lived  for  thirty  years  among  savages  in  a  country  which 
had  never  been  explored.  It  was  the  tale  of  a  modern  Robin- 
son Crusoe,  but  upon  close  investigation  as  to  its  truthful- 
ness it  was  pronounced  by  competent  judges  as  not  impossi- 
ble, though  probably  false. 

Malietoa,  king  of  the  Samoan  islands,  who  died  in  Septem- 
ber, 1898,  was  a  man  of  picturesque  personality.  Mild  in  dis- 
position, though  the  immediate  descendant  of  savage  ances- 
tors, more  Christian  in  forbearance,  justice,  and  piety  than 
the  Christians  themselves,  his  life  was  a  lesson  to  priests  on 
piety  and  to  politicians  on  patriotism.  He  loved  his  country, 
and  to  see  it  caught  up  in  a  whirlwind  of  the  world's  avarice 
was  to  him  worse  than  any  destruction  which  might  accrue 
from  the  tempests  of  the  tropics. 

Among  the  others  of  recent  acquisition  there  is  the  Moham- 
medan paradise,  so  lately  the  paradise  of  pirates,  which  it  is 
well  in  its  way  to  have,  and  so  with  the  orthodox  and  heathen 
Edens  complete  the  variety.  The  sultan  of  Sulu,  with  his 
harem  of  sultans,  and  his  100,000  Mussulman  subjects,  should 
be  a  happy  man,  even  though  slavery  and  polygamy  are  not 
permitted  in  the  United  States,  and  his  people  are  of  the  off 
color  in  which  no  American  citizen  may  appear.  For  300 
years  Spain  fought  the  Sulus,  and  succeeded  in  subjugating 
them  only  in  1877.  Maybun,  in  the  island  of  Sulu,  the 
largest  of  the  archipelago,  in  which  there  are  about  150  isles 
and  islets,  half  of  them  inhabited,  is  the  Mohammedan  metrop- 
olis of  these  parts,  and  the  home  of  the  sultan,  who  there 
resides  in  his  palace  of  bamboo.  An  hereditary  monarchy 
under  the  salic  law,  the  sultanate  is  still  subordinate  to  the 
supreme  religious  authority  of  the  sultan  of  Turkey,  which 
brings  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  within  the  category  of  duties. 

One  who  saw  the  sultan  says:  "  His  excellency  was  dressed 
in  very  tight  silk  trousers,  fastened  partly  up  the  sides  with 
showy  chased  gold  or  gilt  buttons,  a  short  Eton-cut  olive- 


THE  TERRESTRIAL    PARADISE  533 

green  jacket  with  an  infinity  of  buttons,  white  socks,  orna- 
mented slippers,  a  red  sash  around  his  waist,  a  kind  of  turban 
and  a  kris  at  his  side.  One  could  almost  have  imagined  him 
to  be  a  Spanish  bull-fighter  with  an  oriental  finish  off.  We  all 
bowed  low,  and  the  sultan,  surrounded  by  his  sultanas,  put  his 
hands  to  his  temples,  and  on  lowering  them  he  bowed  at  the 
same  time.  There  was  a  pause  and  the  sultan  motioned  to  us 
to  repose  on  cushions  on  the  floor,  and  we  did  so.  The  cush- 
ions, covered  with  rich  silk,  were  very  comfortable.  Ser- 
vants in  fantastic  costumes  were  constantly  in  attendance, 
serving  betel-nut." 

Call  to  mosque  is  made  by  beating  on  a  box,  or  striking  two 
sticks  together,  the  temple  being  of  bamboo.  The  Sulus  wear 
a  turban  head-dress,  even  though  they  wear  nothing  else. 
They  gather  fruit,  catch  fish,  trade  in  pearls,  shells,  and 
shark-fins. 

One  sings  the  isles  of  Greece,  another  the  vales  of  Cash- 
mere, but  no  spot  of  earth  is  fitter  as  a  specimen  of  paradise 
than  parts  of  the  South  sea  isles,  where  hills  and  valleys  are 
feathered  by  foliage,  where  forest  and  streams  subdue  the 
tropical  heat,  and  all  the  region  round  is  fanned  and  fresh- 
ened by  ocean  breezes  breathing  perpetual  spring.  Then, 
mounting  higher  into  the  cooler  air,  look  away  over  the  eter- 
nity of  ocean;  note  where  on  every  side  the  sea  and  sky  meet, 
and  what  is  seen  there,  and  beyond,  and  still  and  forever  be- 
yond, depends  on  the  sight  and  soul  of  the  beholder.  Para- 
dise, yet  not  without  its  Satan,  else  it  could  not  be  Eden. 
When  the  gentle  winds  rise  to  whirlwinds,  there  is  a  demon 
in  them.  When  the  mountains  belch  forth  fire  and  death, 
and  the  valleys  open  wide  the  mouth  of  destruction,  know 
that  evil  cometh,  and  if  possible  propitiate  it.  The  serpent 
likewise,  turned  out  of  his  old  Eden,  in  this  new  Eden  plural- 
izes  himself  in  a  multitude  of  mammoth  and  fantastic  forms. 
It  would  seem  that  the  contiguity  of  hades  does  not  detract 
from  the  pleasures  of  paradise.  Because  of  the  deadly  ele- 
ments, and  the  poisonous  beasts  and  insects,  the  people  are 
none  the  less  free  from  care  or  full  of  happiness.  What  if  fire 
comes  down  from  heaven,  or  shoots  up  from  earth,  or  the  tor- 
nado sweeps  towns  to  destruction,  or  the  deluge  drowns  whole 
districts?  the  sun  shines  presently  as  bright  as  ever,  and 
though  a  few  thousand  are  killed  there  are  plenty  of  people 
18 


531  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

left.  The  air  of  all  these  isles  has  remarkable  medicinal 
virtues  if  we  can  find  them  out.  Many  go  there  to  be  healed; 
some  return.  Every  thing  is  of  strategic  value  now,  and  is 
wanted  for  a  coal  station  and  navy  yard;  possibly  for  a  cable 
telegraph  station.  The  time  will  come  however  when  some 
of  the  lands  of  the  Pacific  will  be  reserved  to  benefit  the  living, 
and  not  all  of  them  be  devoted  to  war  and  subject  to  diplo- 
macy. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

STOBY    OF    CALAFIA,    QUEEN    OF    CALIFORNIA 

IN  1535  Hernan  Cortes  set  out  to  explore  the  western 
boundary  of  his  conquest,  and  coming  presently  upon  a  great 
island,  which  might  prove  indeed  to  be  a  peninsula,  he  be- 
thought him  of  his  Amadis  de  Guala,  the  fifth  book  of  that 
immortal  romance,  entitled  Las  Sergas  del  Cavallero  Esplan- 
dino,  published  in  1510,  wherein  is  given  the  story  of  Calafia, 
queen  of  California,  and  a  description  of  the  island,  said  to 
be  situated  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Indies,  near  the  Terrestrial 
Paradise. 

Now,  as  every  one  knows,  Amadis  was  to  Gaul  what  king 
Arthur  was  to  Britain,  a  hero  of  romance,  round  whom  were 
grouped  adventurous  knights,  defenders  of  the  faith  and  of 
fair  women,  and  delighting  in  deeds  of  chivalry.  In  the 
Sergas  de  Esplanadian  is  told  how  king  Amadis,  his  brother 
Galaor,  his  son  Esplandian,  and  an  army  of  Christian  knights 
and  retainers,  go  to  Constantinople,  there  to  assist  the  Greeks 
against  the  infidel  Turks.  Esplandian  was  a  brave  and  chival- 
rous warrior,  who  in  infancy  had  been  seized  and  carried  off 
by  a  lioness  while  those  in  charge  of  him  were  passing  through 
a  forest.  The  lioness,  rebuked  by  a  hermit,  is  turned  to  kind- 
ness, and  suckles  and  fosters  the  child,  until  rescued  by  King 
Lisuarte,  in  whose  court  Esplandian  is  brought  up  and  re- 
ceives knighthood.  Arrived  in  the  land  of  the  Turks,  Amadis, 
Galaor,  and  Esplandian,  called  the  black  knight  from  his  armor 
and  the  Great  Serpent  from  his  wisdom,  fight  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  enchantress  Urganda,  while  the  infidels  are  as- 
sisted by  her  rival  Melia.  Being  in  great  danger  at  one  time, 
Urganda  saves  the  Christians  by  throwing  them  into  a  deep 
sleep,  until  possession  of  a  certain  magic  sword  should  be  ob- 
tained with  which  to  rescue  them. 
18  535 


536  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

The  great  conqueror  of  Mexico,  thinking  of  all  this  while 
crossing  the  sea  of  Cortes,  as  the  gulf  of  California  was  at  first 
called,  and  coming  upon  what  appeared  to  be  an  island  of 
wild  and  rugged  aspect,  and  which  was  so  regarded  and  mapped 
for  many  years  thereafter;  half  helieving  the  romance  real 
while  considering  that  this  island  was  on  the  right  hand  of 
the  Indies,  and  surely  could  not  he  far  from  the  Terrestrial 
Paradise,  he  said,  "  This  must  be  California,"  and  so  it  has 
ever  since  been  known,  and  ever  will  be  known. 

Some  there  may  be  who  would  like  to  hear  the  story  of 
Calafia,  and  her  black  Amazons,  and  how  they  lived  in  their 
isle  of  California,  and  went  to  war,  and  conquered  men  and 
monsters.  If  so  I  will  tell  it  them.  It  runs  somewhat  as 
follows. 

Now  be  it  known  that  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Indies,  very 
near  to  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,  is  an  island  called  California, 
which  was  peopled  with  women  alone,  and  they  were  black, 
and  there  were  no  men  among  them,  for  they  lived  after  the 
manner  of  Amazons,  and  loved  war.  They  were  strong  of 
body,  with  sinews  well  hardened,  and  of  great  courage  and 
force.  Their  arms  and  armour  were  of  gold,  for  in  all  this 
island  there  is  no  other  metal.  They  lived  in  caves  carved 
out  of  the  solid  rock,  well  constructed  and  spacious,  sumptu- 
ously furnished  and  beautifully  adorned  with  gems  and  fine 
feather-work.  They  had  many  and  large  ships,  in  which  they 
safely  navigated  all  seas,  and  waged  war  in  all  parts  of  the 
Pacific,  bringing  back  much  booty.  And  by  reason  of  its 
rocky  shores  and  steep  cliffs,  there  was  no  island  in  any  sea 
stronger  than  the  island  of  California,  nor  yet  so  strong. 

And  there  were  no  men  there  because  the  women  would  not 
permit  it;  they  loved  not  men  more  puny  than  themselves, 
and  as  none  came  hither  stronger  than  they,  all  who  came 
they  fed  to  the  griffins.  For  in  this  island  of  California,  which 
is  of  great  ruggedness,  there  were  myriads  of  wild  beasts, 
and  among  them  griffins,  which  the  women  caught  when 
small,  taking  them  in  traps,  and  covering  themselves  with 
thick  hides  when  they  went  to  catch  them.  And  the  black 
Amazons  brought  the  young  griffins  to  their  caves,  and  fed 
them  with  men,  and  reared  them  there,  obtaining  full  mastery 
over  them. 

All  male  prisoners  of  war  the  Amazons  gave  to  the  griffins, 


CALAFIA,   QUEEN   OF   CALIFORNIA          537 

and  of  the  children  born  among  them,  the  male  children  were 
fed  to  the  griffins,  while  the  females  were  carefully  reared, 
and  trained  to  bodily  endurance  and  the  arts  of  war.  And 
the  griffins  devoured  the  men  and  boys,  but  women  they 
would  not  harm;  and  if  peradventure  at  any  time  they  were 
given  more  of  this  food  than  they  could  eat,  they  seized  and 
carried  their  prey  high  in  air,  and  then  dropped  it,  and  so 
life  was  extinguished. 

Queen  of  this  isle  was  Calafia,  large  of  person  and  of  radiant 
beauty.  Of  blooming  age,  she  was  likewise  strong  of  limb  and 
of  brave  heart.  She  was  loved  by  her  women,  and  feared  by 
all  men;  now  weak  men  are  the  abomination  of  strong  women. 

It  was  a  wonderful  thing,  the  most  extraordinary  that  ever 
was  written,  or  that  ever  was  known  within  the  memory  of  man, 
how  this  great  queen  desired  distinction;  how  in  her  breast 
ambition  burned  for  the  honor  of  her  isle,  and  for  the  fame 
of  her  female  retainers;  how  she  heard  of  the  far-distant 
fightings,  and  how  she  found  her  way  from  the  sea  of  Cortes 
to  the  Bosphorus,  whether  by  way  of  the  American  or  of  the 
African  cape  no  one  can  tell,  for  to  him  who  wills  all  ways 
lie  open. 

I  say  that  more  than  any  sovereign  who  had  ever  lived  be- 
fore her,  Queen  Calafia  was  desirous  of  achieving  great  things; 
so  when  she  heard  how  all  the  pagan  world  was  stirred  to  this 
onslaught  upon  the  Christians,  though  she  knew  not  well 
what  Christians  were,  nor  even  much  of  such  distant  lands,  she 
resolved  to  go  forth;  for  she  desired  to  see  the  world  and  its 
various  peoples,  and  considering  her  great  strength,  and  the 
strength  of  her  women,  she  might  hope  to  win  distinction  and 
secure  spoils. 

So  she  talked  with  those  of  her  people  who  were  accustomed 
to  war,  and  showed  them  what  a  fine  thing  it  would  be  if  they 
should  embark  in  their  several  fleets  for  this  adventure  in 
which  princes  and  great  men  were  joining.  She  animated 
them  further  by  pointing  out  the  honor  attending  such  a 
course,  and  how  their  fame  and  the  fame  of  their  isle  would 
be  sounded  throughout  the  world;  whereas  if  they  remained 
always  at  home  or  within  the  confines  of  their  own  ocean,  as 
their  ancestors  had  done,  they  might  as  well  be  dead  as  alive, 
passing  their  days  ingloriously  like  the  brutes. 

Thus  speaking  Queen  Calafia  prevailed  upon  her  people  to 


538  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

consent  to  this  undertaking,  and  the  warrior-women  besought 
her  to  make  ready  the  ships,  and  hasten  at  once  to  sea. 

Seeing  thus  the  willingness  of  her  subjects,  and  the  eager- 
ness of  her  warriors  to  depart,  the  queen  without  more  delay 
ordered  to  be  made  ready  her  several  fleets,  the  same  to  be 
well  provisioned,  and  equipped  with  arms  all  of  gold,  and 
more  of  everything  even  than  was  necessary.  She  ordered 
further  that  her  largest  ships  should  be  provided  with  gratings 
of  the  strongest  wood,  like  a  great  cage,  and  therein  to  be 
placed  five  hundred  griffins,  such  as  those  I  have  told  you  of, 
that  from  the  time  they  were  very  small  were  required  to  eat 
and  to  live  on  men. 

Queen  Calafia  commanded  further  that  all  the  beasts  on 
which  she  and  her  woman-warriors  rode,  or  which  they  used, 
of  whatsoever  kind  they  were,  should  be  placed  on  board  the 
largest  ships  of  the  fleet,  and  that  all  her  best  and  bravest 
women  should  embark,  all  those  who  in  this  isle  of  California 
were  the  strongest  and  most  skilled  in  war.  But  enough 
should  remain  to  make  safe  what  was  left  at  home,  and  insure 
the  country  from  invasion. 

Then  the  queen  embarked,  and  with  her  army  of  retainers 
sailed  away  upon  the  sea;  and  such  was  the  haste  they  made, 
and  such  their  good  fortune  by  the  way,  that  they  arrived  in 
due  time  at  the  fleet  of  the  pagans,  upon  the  night  after  a  great 
battle,  and  were  received  with  rejoicing,  and  visited  by  the 
great  men  and  lords.  She  asked  them  many  questions  about 
the  war,  their  failures  and  successes,  and  the  present  condition 
of  affairs.  Then  she  said: 

"  This  city  you  have  fought  with  your  great  army,  and  seem 
unable  to  take  it;  permit  me  to  try." 

"  You  shall  have  your  wish,  great  queen." 

"  Order  then  that  none  of  your  officers  on  any  account  leave 
their  camps,  they  nor  their  men,  until  I  give  you  permission, 
and  on  the  morrow  you  shall  see  a  combat  such  as  you  have 
never  seen  before,  nor  even  heard  of." 

"  It  shall  be  so,  great  queen." 

To  the  sultan  of  Liquia  word  was  sent,  and  to  the  sultan  of 
Halapa,  who  had  command  of  all  the  pagan  forces,  that  on 
the  morrow  none  should  take  up  arms  against  the  Christians. 
And  they  wondered  what  the  thought  of  this  queen  of  Cali- 
fornia might  be. 


CALAFiA,   QUEEN   OF   CALIFOKNIA          5;5t) 

The  night  passed,  the  morning  came,  and  with  it  came 
Queen  Calafia  from  the  sea,  she  and  her  women,  armed  all  and 
with  armor  of  gold  and  precious  stones,  such  as  are  found  scat- 
tered in  the  fields  of  California,  so  great  is  their  abundance. 
And  the  fiery  beasts  were  brought  forth,  splendidly  capari- 
soned, and  the  women  mounted  thereon. 

The  queen  then  ordered  opened  the  door  of  the  cage,  and 
the  griffins  came  pouring  forth  in  haste  and  hunger,  for  they 
saw  men,  of  which  food  they  had  eaten  none  during  their  long 
voyage.  Flying  forward  without  fear,  each  caught  up  a  Chris- 
tian in  its  claws,  and  carried  him  on  high,  there  to  devour  him 
or  let  him  fall;  nor  could  the  lances  hurled  at  them  pierce 
their  so  closely  matted  feathers. 

For  the  pagans  it  was  indeed  a  sight  pleasant  to  see,  the 
writhing  of  their  enemies  in  the  talons  of  these  odious  birds. 
Loud  shouted  the  Turks  with  joy  as  their  monster  allies  again 
and  again  dived  over  the  city  walls  and  tore  from  embrace  of 
father  the  son,  and  from  embrace  of  son  the  father,  tore 
brother  from  brother  to  fling  them  high  in  air  or  drop  them 
into  the  sea. 

Panic-striken  with  terror,  the  Christians  fled,  some  one  way 
and  some  another,  hiding  in  vaults  or  covering  themselves 
with  stones,  until  upon  the  ramparts  or  in  the  city  streets 
there  was  visible  not  one.  Then  cried  Calafia  in  a  loud  voice, 
saying,  "  The  city  is  taken,"  and  bade  the  sultans  bring  men 
with  ladders  for  scaling  the  walls,  which  was  done. 

But  alas  for  the  discriminating  power  of  these  birds  of  evil 
omen,  that  should  not  know  Turks  from  Christians!  They 
were  all  men  to  them.  So  when  the  infidels  mounted  the  walls 
to  take  possession  of  the  city,  down  upon  them  pounced  the 
griffins,  down  upon  this  fresh  supply  of  men,  and  up  into  the 
air  they  went,  now  indeed  to  the  delectable  joy  of  the  Chris- 
tians. 

When  the  queen  saw  the  dire  destruction  wrought  upon  her 
friends  through  her  instrumentality,  she  was  filled  with  hor- 
ror, and  breaking  forth  in  sorrow  and  in  anger  to  her  island 
deities:  "  0  ye  gods  ",  she  cried,  "  whom  I  and  my  ancestors 
have  long  worshipped,  paving  your  sanctuaries  with  gold  and 
adorning  your  altars  with  precious  stones,  why  have  ye  served 
me  this  scurry  trick,  thus  to  humiliate  me  before  these  stran- 
gers, and  bring  our  beloved  isle  into  disrepute?  " 


5iO  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

But  the  gods  answered  not,  nor  came  to  her  aid,  but  left 
her  to  fall  into  intricacies  bringing  yet  deeper  despair.  For 
when  she  ordered  her  women  to  mount  the  ladders  and  slay 
all  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  vaults  and  towers,  they  obey- 
ing were  so  wounded  by  the  people  below,  whose  darts  pierced 
their  sides,  notwithstanding  their  golden  breast-plates  and  the 
armor  which  covered  arms  and  legs,  that  they  were  utterly  de- 
feated in  their  purpose. 

To  make  matters  worse  the  griffins  became  unruly  and 
would  not  obey  their  keepers;  so  that  the  queen  cried  out  to 
the  sultans,  "  Send  hither  your  men  to  assist  against  these  vile 
birds  that  have  dared  to  disobey."  But  when  the  .men,  rush- 
ing from  their  camps,  mounted  the  walls  to  assist  the  fighting 
women,  they  in  their  turn  were  seized  by  the  fiendish  beasts, 
and  so  perished  many.  Then  fell  panic  fear  on  all  the  pagans 
left  upon  the  walls,  and  quicker  than  they  had  come  they  fled 
back  to  their  camps.  The  queen,  seeing  no  remedy  for  these 
continued  disasters,  commanded  the  keepers  of  the  griffins  to 
recall  them  to  their  cages,  which  was  done,  the  monsters  re- 
turning again  to  obedience. 

Then  said  Queen  Calafia  to  the  pagans:  "  Since  my  coming 
hither  has  wrought  you  thus  far  only  evil,  let  me,  I  pray,  bring 
you  some  good.  Command  your  people  forth,  and  let  us  to 
the  city,  when  I  and  mine  will  take  the  front,  and  fight  all 
who  may  oppose  us.  And  the  sultans  ordered  their  soldiers  to 
the  ramparts,  while  Calafia,  the  horsemen  following,  appeared 
before  the  gate.  As  the  pagans  mounted  to  the  walls,  the 
Christians  repulsed  them,  throwing  down  the  ladders  and  kill- 
ing many.  Meanwhile  from  within  the  gate  sallied  forth  Nor- 
andel,  half-brother  of  Amadis,  and  upon  him  rushed  Queen 
Calafia  so  furiously  that  the  lances  of  the  combatants  were 
shivered.  And  as  they  drew  their  swords  and  inflicted  on  each 
other  quick  and  vigorous  blows,  others  came  forward  on  either 
side  and  engaged  in  hand  to  hand  conflict  terrible  to  see. 

So  fiercely  fell  the  blows,  so  rapidly  were  the  combatants 
disabled,  that  soon  the  fighting  ceased,  everywhere  save  round 
Calafia  and  Norandel.  And  I  tell  you  that  one  can  scarcely 
believe  the  daring  deeds  performed  by  this  California  queen 
in  that  great  battle, — the  knights  she  slew,  the  nobles  she  un- 
horsed, the  feats  of  valor  done,  or  that  ever  woman  displayed 
such  skill  and  strength  in  arms. 


CALAFIA,   QUEEN   OF   CALIFORNIA         541 

Among  those  who  witnessed  with  wonder  this  singular  strife 
were  the  noble  knights  Talanque  and  Maneli,  the  latter  the 
son  of  Childadan,  king  of  Ireland.  These  seeing  Norandel  so 
hard  pressed  by  the  Amazons,  rushed  to  his  aid,  and  rained 
such  blows  upon  the  women  as  they  would  rain  on  fiends. 
Whereupon,  down  upon  these  knights  like  a  lioness  came  Liota, 
sister  of  the  queen,  and  drove  them  back;  this  to  their  great 
discomforture,  and  brought  forth  Calafia  from  their  power, 
and  placed  her  again  among  her  own  warriors. 

All  day  and  until  nearly  night  the  battle  raged,  many  fall- 
ing dead  on  both  sides;  nor  was  the  city  captured.  Close 
bolted  were  the  gates,  all  save  one,  which  was  opened  to  admit 
the  wounded  and  defeated  Christians  from  without.  Through 
this  gate  about  a  hundred  pagan  warriors  forced  their  way,  but 
were  driven  back.  Then  fell  yet  severer  slaughter  on  them 
all,  and  more  than  two  hundred  of  Calafia's  women  were  slain. 
Finally  the  fighting  ceased  for  the  day,  and  the  queen  and  her 
people  returned  to  their  ships. 

A  council  of  war  was  held  that  night  by  the  pagans,  at  which 
it  was  resolved  to  hurl  defiance  on  the  Christians  in  words  fol- 
lowing: 

"  Radiaro,  sultan  of  Liquia,  defender  of  the  law,  destroyer 
of  Christians,  enemy  of  the  enemies  of  the  gods,  and  the  very 
radiant  and  powerful  queen  Calafia,  lady  of  the  island  Cali- 
fornia, where  in  great  abundance  gold  and  precious  stones  ap- 
pear; these  make  known  to  you,  Amadis  of  Gaul,  and  to  you 
his  son,  Esplandian,  knight  of  the  Great  Serpent,  that  we  have 
come  hither  to  destroy  this  city  of  Constantinople,  and  the 
enemies  of  our  holy  religion,  thereby  also  to  gain  distinction 
in  honorable  war.  Having  heard  of  your  chivalry  and  prow- 
ess in  arms,  we  hereby  offer  you  battle,  if  such  be  accept- 
able to  yon,  person  to  person,  in  individual  combat,  all  in  the 
presence  of  the  nations,  the  victors  to  be  victors  for  all,  and 
the  vanquished  to  be  vanquished  for  all.  And  if  you  accept 
not  this  challenge,  then  shall  your  glories  leave  you,  and  your 
fame  become  ours  forever." 

To  the  council-chamber  of  the  Christians  this  message  was 
carried  by  one  of  the  queen's  maids  of  honor,  a  black  and 
beautiful  creature,  richly  attired  and  riding  a  fiery  beast.  The 
communication  was  courteously  received,  and  to  the  messenger, 
King  Amadis  thus: 


513  THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

"  Lady,  say  to  the  sultan  and  to  your  queen  that  their  pro- 
posal is  accepted,  and  they  shall  choose  the  arms  to  be  used, 
the  field  shall  be  this  field,  if  so  be  it  pleaseth  them,  divided  in 
the  middle,  and  the  time  the  present." 

When  the  maid  returned  the  queen  questioned  her  closely. 

"  How  appeared  these  men  to  you;  were  they  handsome, 
were  they  noble,  were  they  brave?  Who  seemed  to  you  the 
best,  speak?" 

"  Very  handsome  and  very  brave  and  noble,  0  queen.  And 
fairest  of  all  was  he  whom  they  call  Esplandian.  0  Calafia! 
he  was  the  most  beautiful  man  I  ever  saw,  or  ever  will  see 
again.  So  rare,  so  elegant,  so  grand,  as  if  our  own  gods  them- 
selves had  made  him! " 

"  My  friend,"  replied  the  queen,  "  your  words  are  too  large; 
there  are  no  such  men." 

"  Nay,  queen,  what  I  say  is  true;  but  the  sight  of  him  alone 
can  properly  speak  his  excellence." 

"  Then  that  sight  of  him  will  I  have  ",  said  the  queen.  "  I 
will  not  fight  such  a  man  until  I  have  seen  him,  and  talked 
with  him." 

Eeturning  to  the  city,  the  queen's  messenger  approached 
the  council-chamber  of  the  Christians  and  said: 

"  King  Amadis,  the  queen  Calafia  requests  safe  conduct 
hither  on  the  morrow  that  she  may  see  your  son." 

Amadis  smiled.  "  Women  may  be  conquered  by  other 
weapons  than  swords,"  he  said.  Then  to  his  companions, 
"  How  seems  this  matter  to  you?  " 

"  Let  her  come,"  they  said,  "  we  should  like  to  see  the  most 
wonderful  woman  in  the  world  ". 

All  night  long  Calafia  sat  thinking  over  the  approaching  in- 
terview, when  her  messenger  reentered  and  told  her  what  the 
Christian  lords  had  said.  "How  shall  I  appear,  how  array 
myself,  how  meet  him?  "  These  and  like  questions  she  asked 
herself  many  times.  "  Shall  I  go  armed  and  accoutred?  I  am  a 
warrior;  aye,  that  were  the  best.  But  I  am  a  woman,  and  men 
best  like  women  in  the  habiliments  of  their  sex." 

With  the  morn  she  rose  and  arrayed  herself  in  costly  robes, 
and  crown  adorned  with  jewels;  and  mounting  her  strange 
beast,  likewise  brilliantly  adorned  in  trappings  of  gold  and 
gems,  she  rode  forth  to  the  place  appointed  by  the  Christians 
to  receive  her.  When  her  eyes  fell  on  Esplandian, "  Ah,  gods! " 


CALAFIA,   QUEEN   OF   CALIFORNIA          513 

she  cried,  as  her  hand  sought  her  heart,  "  what  being  is  this? 
Never  have  I  seen  one  so  fair  ".  And  as  he  gazed  on  her  she 
felt  his  eyes  sink  into  her  soul,  and  her  heart  melt.  She  knew 
that  she  must  go  quickly  away,  or  her  warrior  nature  would 
turn  to  softness,  and  never  more  should  she  be  able  to  lead 
armies. 

"  Knight  of  the  Great  Serpent "  she  exclaimed,  "  I  per- 
ceive in  you  two  excellences,  such  as  I  have  never  beheld  in 
any  other  man,  comeliness  and  courage;  you  shall  find  in  the 
field  this  day  a  worthy  foe  in  the  person  of  the  valiant  sultan 
of  Liquia,  while  I  shall  have  the  honor  to  encounter  the  king 
your  father.  If  from  this  battle  we  both  come  back  alive,  we 
will  speak  further  together.''  Esplandian,  though  struck  by 
her  beauty,  made  no  reply,  because  she  seemed  to  him  strange, 
and  not  like  other  women. 

In  the  battle  which  ensued,  Esplandian  and  the  sultan 
fought,  and  Calafia  and  Amadis,  and  so  hard  pressed  by  the 
queen  of  California  was  the  Christian  king,  that  when  his 
horse  fell  upon  him  and  pinned  him  down,  his  son  Esplandian 
rushed  to  his  rescue.  All  the  while  King  Amadis  put  not 
forth  his  strength;  perceiving  which  the  queen  exclaimed, 

"Amadis,  how  now?  Do  you  disdain  to  fight  me  at  your 
best?" 

"  Queen,  it  is  my  part  to  protect  women,  not  to  destroy 
them." 

"  What,  then,  am  I  a  woman  such  as  that?  " 

So  saying  she  took  her  sword  in  both  her  hands,  and  struck 
so  strong  a  blow  that  the  king's  shield  was  cut  in  twain.  He, 
escaping,  disarmed  her  and  bore  her  down. 

"  Now  yield  ye  my  prisoner,"  cried  King  Amadis. 

"  Aye  "  she  answered  "  for  naught  else  can  I  do." 

At  that  moment  the  sultan  surrendered  himself  to  Esplan- 
dian. The  prisoners  were  sent  by  their  captors  as  a  present  to 
the  infanta,  Leonorina,  daughter  of  the  Grecian  emperor,  and 
betrothed  to  Esplandian.  The  infanta  received  them  gracious- 
ly, healed  their  wounds,  and  arrayed  them  in  fresh  and  costly 
garments,  such  as  befitted  their  high  station.  Calafia  was  no 
less  surprised  at  the  beauty  of  Leonorina,  than  she  had  been 
previously  captivated  by  Esplandian,  on  whom  she  now  saw 
it  was  useless  to  set  her  heart. 

But  as  defeat  had  been  her  portion  in  this  campaign,  and 


THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

the  spoils  of  victory  had  been  denied  her,  she  thought  she 
might  at  least  take  home  with  her  a  husband.  And  she  was 
quite  sure  she  preferred  a  Christian  to  an  infidel;  and  the 
Christian  religion  she  was  ready  to  accept,  for  as  the  pagan 
gods  had  abandoned  her  in  the  hour  of  her  need,  so  would  she 
now  abandon  them.  Calling,  therefore,  together  the  emperor 
and  his  lords,  she  thus  addressed  them. 

"  Know  all  ye  here  present,  that  I  am  the  queen  of  a  great 
country,  in  which  is  an  abundance  of  those  things  which  all 
men  hold  in  highest  estimation,  gold  and  precious  stones.  My 
lineage  is  of  the  proudest;  my  honor  is  without  a  stain.  Fort- 
une brought  me  to  these  shores,  where  I  had  thought  to  take 
many  captives,  but  alas!  I  myself  am  captive.  If  by  your 
great  goodness  I  am  now  permitted  to  return  to  my  own  land, 
give  me,  I  pray  you,  for  husband,  a  good  knight,  a  man  of 
valor,  and  of  lineage  equal  to  my  own,  and  I  and  my  people 
shall  become  Christians,  and  he  will  reign  over  us." 

Then  the  emperor,  taking  by  the  hand  Talanque,  of  large 
and  comely  person,  said: 

"  Queen,  this  is  my  cousin,  a  king's  son,  and  worthy  of  your 
high  esteem." 

She  said,  "  I  am  content." 

Then  spake  Maneli,  brother  of  Talanque,  and  a  knight  of 
good  parts: 

"  Your  sister,  queen,  Liota;  I  love  her,  and  would  have  her 
for  my  wife,  and  I  will  go  with  her  to  her  own  land,  there  to 
remain  forever." 

Then  Calafia  called  to  her  Liota,  and  said,  "  Shall  it  be  so, 
my  sister?  " 

And  Liota  answered,  "  Yes." 


INDEX 


ALASKA:  wealth  and  develop- 
ment, 181-83;  climate,  238; 
mining,  266;  commerce  and 
products,  312 

Aleutian  isles  and  others,  182 

Altruism  in  international  affairs, 
16,  17-22,  24,  26 

America  on  the  Pacific,  161-72 

Anson,  G.,  voyage,  490-92 

Asia  in  the  year  of  '98,  26;  Eu- 
rope in,  108-50;  America  in 
Asia,  132 ;  England  and  Russia, 
134;  Asia  on  the  Pacific,  183-84 

Australia  and  the  Pacific,  178; 
gold  discovery  and  development, 
193-95  ;  climate,  248 ;  resources, 
233;  labor  wages,  289 

BALBOA,  Vasco  Nunez  de,  in  Pan- 
ama bay.  260 

Baranoi,  M.  von,  Russian  gov- 
ernor at  Sitka,  472 

Batavia,  capital  of  Java,  367 

Battleships  of  the  Spanish  war, 
59-63 

Beechey,  voyage  of,  474 

Benzoni,  G.,  adventures  on  the 
Isthmus,  446-47 

Bering,  V.,  voyages  of,  352 

Bligh,  W.,  voyage  into  the  South 
sea.  520-21 

Bolivia,   resources,   210 

British  Columbia,  cities  and  rail- 
ways, 180-H1  ;  in  relation  to  the 
Pacifir.  180-81;  resources,  220: 
mining  in.  366;  fisheries  of, 
281 ;  commerce  and  manufac- 
tures, 311 

Buccaneers:  colony  of,  498;  their 
regulations  and  achievements, 
499;  Lolonnois,  Francois,  and 
Morgan,  500 

Burlingame,  A.,  work  for  the  Chi- 
nese, 119 


CAI.AFTA,     queen     of     California, 
story   of,   535-44 


California :  forty  years  ago,  8 ;  the 
centre  of  United  States  posses- 
sions, 18;  economic  epochs,  216; 
call  of  gold,  262-64;  possibili- 
ties in  cotton,  276;  manufac- 
tures, 282 

Canton:  its  towers,  its  early  trade 
and  late  development,  87  ;  manu- 
factures, 287 

Caroline  islands  and  Micronesia, 
190,  365 

Carrying  trade,  old  and  new,  1-2 

Cathay,  mythology  and  history, 
74-77 

Cavendish,  T,,  piracy  and  circum- 
navigation, 453-55 

Central  America:  the  land  and 
the  people,  171-72;  resources, 
213-15 

Chili:  physical  features,  167-69; 
resources,  210 

China:  awakening  of,  10-11;  de- 
velopment, 12  ;  old  and  new,  27  ; 
its  history,  73-75 ;  the  great 
wall  and  the  Emperor  Chin-shi, 
80;  the  Yangtse,  Hoang-ho, 
and  other  rivers,  81-82;  prov- 
inces of,  84;  Yellow  and  China 
seas,  88 ;  yun-ho,  or  grand  ca- 
nal, 82;  the  Taiping  rebellion, 
89;  characteristics,  90-93;  the 
English  in  China,  113-15;  fight- 
ing opium,  124-25 ;  Russia  in 
China,  136;  French  and  Ger- 
man missionaries,  143-44 :  in- 
dustrial policy  of.  226-27  ;  farm- 
ing lands  and  farms,  227-28 ; 
tea  and  opium  industries,  228- 
29;  coal  fields,  268;  metals  of 
Manchuria,  268 ;  expulsion  ab- 
surdities, 414-16 

Climates  of  the  Pacific,  236-58; 
Japan,  237 ;  Alaska,  238 ;  on  the 
Yukon,  240;  Pacific  U.  S.,  241; 
South  America,  242,  245-48; 
Mexico.  243:  Central  America, 
244;  Australia,  248;  Philippine 


545 


546 


INDEX 


islands,  251;  China,  253;  Ja- 
pan, 256-58 

Colombia:  metals  and  industries, 
290;  commerce,  335 

Colonial  experiences  of  England 
and  Spain,  65 

Commerce:  of  Japan,  2-3;  of  Chi- 
na and  contiguous  countries,  97- 
100;  of  the  Pacific,  292-337; 
comparisons,  338 

Confucius,  teachings  of,   101 

Cook,  J.,  voyages  of,  463-66; 
death,  466 

Cortes,  H.:  on  the  Pacific,  260-61 ; 
in  the  sea  of  Corte"s,  or  gulf  of 
California,  458 

Cotton  industry:  in  the  U.  S., 
275-76;  in  Asia  and  England, 
276-77 

Crusoe  island,  480-96 

Cuba:  the  people,  36;  Spanish 
atrocities,  34-53 ;  struggle  for 
independence,  38-41 ;  infamies 
of  the  Spaniards,  42-46 ;  pit- 
iable conditions  of  the  natives, 
47-50 

Cuzco,  city  of  the  sun,  166 

DANA,  R.  H. :  on  the  California 
coast,  348-51;  ignorance  of  ear- 
ly history,  352 

Darwin,  C.,  scientific  journey, 
476-79 

Dewey,  G:  year  of  '98,  28;  de- 
stroys the  Spanish  fleet,  53;  ef- 
fect of  his  achievement,  59 

Drake,  F. :  adventures  of,  449 ; 
easy  religion  and  facile  men- 
dacity, 449-53 ;  coast  of  South 
America,  451;  California  coast, 
452 

ECUADOR:  railways,  179;  soil  and 
products,  213 

English-speaking  peoples :  exten- 
sion of,  7;  uniting  of,  16-18; 
at  Hongkong,  112;  in  Japan, 
113;  trickeries  of  the  English 
in  China,  129 

Europe :  then  and  now,  6 ;  evil  eye 
on  China,  26 ;  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  33-34;  Europe  in  Asia, 
108-50 

FAR  EAST,  the,  73-107;  American 

influence,  319 
Fiji,  policy  of  England,  358 


Food  products,  rice  and  flour,  9- 
10 

Formosa:  the  people,  106;  Jap- 
anese rulership,  107;  the  beau- 
tiful isle  of  the  Portuguese,  109 ; 
manufactures,  288 

GALLEONS,  Acapulco  and  Manila,  1 
Germany:    thirst    for    China,    26; 

in  the  contemplated  partition  of 

the  Far  East,  142 
Guatemala,  rubber  culture,  214 
Guayaquil,  commerce  of,  212 

HAWAIIAN  islands:  the  pearl  of 
the  Pacific,  368-85 ;  resources, 
234-35;  annexation,  300;  un- 
known before  Cook  came,  368 ; 
history  and  progress,  370-75 ; 
influx  of  Asiatics,  383-85 

Honduras,  coffee  culture,  214 

Hongkong,  the  city  of  palaces,  86; 
mixed  population,  87 

Honolulu :  sugar  factories  and  iron 
works,  289 

Horn,  the  cape  and  country 
around,  170 

Humboldt,  A.  von,  scientific  ex- 
pedition, 471 

IMPERIALISM,  the  question  of  the 
hour  following  the  Spanish  war, 
71-72 
Indians:     disappearance    of,    7-8; 

under  Spanish  rule,  33-35 
Indies:   administration  of,  33-35 
Industrialism  in  the  Pacific,  18-19 
Interoceanic    canal    following     the 
Spanish    war    a    necessity,   69 ; 
interoceanic  communication,  199- 
209;    apocryphal    voyages,    200- 
02 ;   the  several  isthmuses,  202- 
05;    advantages    and    disadvan- 
tages   of    a    canal    to    the    wst 
coast  of  North  America,  204-00 
Islands  of  the  Pacific,  190-03 

JAPAN  :  commerce  of,  2-3 ;  devel- 
opment, 1 1 ;  cities  of,  93 ;  my- 
thology and  history,  93-95  ;  rap- 
id progress,  97-98;  trade  and 
commerce,  99-100;  natural  ene- 
my of  China,  102;  mineral 
wealth,  267;  manufactures,  282 

Juan  Fernandez,  the  Crusoe  island 
of  Defoe,  480-82 


INDEX 


547 


KAHN,  the  grand ;  Jenghis,  Man- 
gu,  Kublai  and  other  potentates 
of  China,  73-78;  mission  of  the 
Franciscan  friars,  79 

Kamchatka,  the  country  and  its 
people,  99 

Kanakas,  their  habits  and  charac- 
ter, 350-51 

Korea:  evil  eye  of  the  spoilers 
upon  her,  26 ;  Count  Inouye's 
rulership,  102-5;  Russia,  Japan, 
and  China  in  Korea,  106;  early 
isolation,  135-36;  manufactures, 
287 

Kotzebue,  0.  von,  voyage,  473 

LADBONES,  proposed  sale  of,  131 
La  Perouse,  voyage  of,  468 
Ledyard,  J.,  adventures  in  the  Pa- 
cific, 346-48 

Lima,  the  city  of  the  kings,  165 
Los    Angeles,    marvelous    develop- 
ment of,  176 

Lower  California,  peninsula  of, 
175 

MAGELLAN,  F.  de:  story  of,  436-44; 
voyage  into  the  Pacific,  430-42 ; 
at  the  Philippine  islands,  444 

Maine:  tragedy  of,  15;  details 
of  the  affair,  49-50 

Maire,  J.  le,  and  Schouten,  W., 
voyage  and  naming  of  Cape 
Horn,  462 

Manchuria,  metals  of,  268 

Manila  :  the  Acapulco  galleons,  1 ; 
Dewey's  achievement,  53 ;  in  re- 
lation to  the  Pacific,  188;  prod- 
ucts and  commerce,  340;  his- 
tory and  development,  388-98 

Manufactures :  American  machin- 
ery and  products  wanted  in 
Asia,  9 ;  at  Shanghai,  11;  in 
Japan  and  Siberia,  11-12;  of  the 
U.  S.,  264;  cotton,  275-79;  of 
China  and  Japan,  278-80;  west- 
ern America,  279-83;  Asia,  281- 
87;  Siberia,  281;  Japan,  282- 
85;  China,  285-86;  Korea,  287 

Mazatlan,  port  of  Mexico,  174 

McKinley,  W. :  year  of  '98,  27-32 ; 
his  attitude  in  the  Spanish  war, 
28-29 ;  his  superb  statesmanship, 
29-32;  in  Cuban  affairs,  43,  46; 
brings  the  matter  before  Con- 
erress.  52;  and  acts,  53 

Mears,  voyage  of,  467 


Mexico:  physical  features,  174-75; 
resources,  217-19;  climate,  243 

Micronesia,  the  land  and  the  peo- 
ple, 358 

Minerals  and  metals,  8 ;  mines  and 
manufactures  of  the  Pacific, 
259-91;  in  China,  138,  268;  Ja- 
pan, 267;  Philippines,  271-72; 
Australia,  272 ;  South  America, 
272-74 ;  in  Central  America  and 
Mexico,  273-74 

Missionaries,  a  useless  and  dis- 
turbing element,  361-62 

Moluccas,  or  Spice  islands,  191 

Morgan,  H.,  piratical  proceedings 
at  Panama,  500-04 

NAGASAKI,  commerce  and  pro- 
ductions, 97 

Nassau  fleet,  its  piratical  proceed- 
ings, 483-84 

Nevada,  wealth  of,  265 

New  Zealand,  resources  and  prog- 
ress, 195-96 

Nicaragua:  the  land  and  the  peo- 
ple, 172-73;  commerce,  336 

Ningpo,  its  commerce  and  manu- 
factures, 87-88 

North  America,  supremacy  on  the 
Pacific,  292 

OCEANICA  and  its  islands,  192 

Okhotsk,  sea  of,  182 

Opium:  forced  on  China  by  the 
English,  123-27;  testing,  131 

Oregon:  cities  of,  180;  wealth, 
264 ;  manufactures,  280 ;  lum- 
ber and  coal,  280-81 

Oriental  and  American  life,  in- 
termingling of,  9-10 

PACIFIC  OCEAN:  development  on 
its  shores,  19-20;  awakening  fol- 
lowing the  war  with  Spain, 
65-70 ;  Pacific  ocean  and  its 
borders,  151-98;  resources  of, 
210-235;  climates  of,  236-58; 
commerce  of,  292-337 ;  notable 
voyage  into,  435-79 ;  influence  of 
the  ocean  on  man,  151-52;  Pur- 
chas  on  oceans,  154;  a  sun  pic- 
ture, 155-57 ;  early  explorations, 
157-59;  the  shores  of,  159-63; 
South  America,  164-70;  Central 
America,  171-72;  gold  of,  250 

Panama:  in  the  early  days,  131; 
wealth  of,  259-61;  old  town  and 


548 


INDEX 


new,  502;  inroads  of  pirates, 
500-03 

Peking,  old  and  new,  85-86 

Peru:  physical  features,  163; 
wealth  of,  273 

Petropaulovski,  a  picture  of  deso- 
lation, 184 

Philippine  archipelago  and  Asiatic 
isles,  386-402 ;  in  relation  to  the 
Pacific,  188;  resources,  235;  cli- 
mate, 251 ;  Magellan's  adven- 
tures, 444 

Pirates:  leaves  from  the  log  books 
of  the,  497-518;  Drake,  Haw- 
kins, and  Oxenham,  505-06 ;  Cav- 
endish and  Dampier,  508-09 ; 
Raleigh  and  Queen  Elizabeth, 
512-13 

Pitcairn  island,  the  place  and  the 
people,  519-20 

Pizarro,  F.:  on  the  Pacific,  260- 
63;  what  Benzoni  said,  447 

Polo,  Marco:  in  China,  76,  259; 
what  he  says  of  Japan,  267 

Polynesia,  people  and  products, 
359 

Puget  sound  and  its  cities,  180 

QUIBOS,  P.  P.  de,  voyage  of,  461 

RACE  problems,  403-35 

Railways:  around  the  Pacific,  3- 
5 ;  in  China  and  Japan,  5 ;  Si- 
berian line,  5-6 ;  in  Asiatic  Rus- 
sia and  China,  118-21;  in  Cen- 
tral and  South  America,  179- 
80;  British  Columbia  and  Alas- 
ka, 180-82;  trans-Siberian,  239 

Resources:  of  the  Pacific,  210-35; 
of  South  America,  210-12;  of 
Central  America,  213-15;  of 
Mexico  and  the  U.  S.,  217-19; 
British  Columbia,  220;  Asia, 
221-25;  resources  and  industries 
of  China,  225-29;  the  Philippine 
islands,  230;  Australia,  233; 
Hawaiian  islands,  234-35 

Russia:  in  China,  15;  tsar  and 
people,  22 ;  in  Japan,  103-04 ;  in 
Korea,  105-06 ;  incursions,  136 ; 
Vladivostok  and  the  railway, 
313-24 


SAGASTA,  P.  M.,  Spain's  sagacious 

premier,  44 
Samoa,  politics  and  products,  362 


San  Diego:  a  promising  city,  176; 
Dana's  visit,  349 

San  Francisco,  as  a  manufactur- 
ing city,  282 

Santiago,  capital  of  Chili,  168 

Santiago,  Cuba :  destruction  of 
Cervera's  fleet,  followed  by  the 
unmanly  jealousy  of  Admiral 
Sampson,  59-63 

Selkirk,  A.,  and  his  Crusoe  island, 
481-82 

Seward,  W.  H.,  on  progress,  8-9 

Shanghai,   manufactures   of,    11 

Shelvocke,  G.,  voyage  and  wreck 
on  Juan  Fernandez  island,  486- 
89 

Shipping,  swarms  of  sail,  2-4 

Siberia:  railway,  5;  reclamation 
of,  11;  resources,  99;  immigra- 
tion, 138;  manufactures,  11-12, 
281 

Society  islands,  visited  by  Cook, 
464 

South  America:  resources  and 
manufactures,  290 ;  commerce, 
333-34 

South  sea  isles,  358-67 

Spain :  then  and  now,  5 ;  decadence 
of,  6-7 ;  system  of  colonial  gov- 
ernment, 33-37;  Indian  policy, 
35-36 ;  early  relations  with  U.  S., 
37;  barbarities  in  America,  33- 
53 ;  finance  and  land  policv, 
34;  war  and  degradation,  60-65 

Spice  islands,  land  of  enchant- 
ment, 367 

Spilbergen,  J.,  voyage  of,  461 

Steamboats,  China  furnished  from 
the  U.  S.,  121 

Steamship  lines,  1-2;  American, 
Japanese,  and  Canadian  service, 
2-3 

Sulu  islands  and  the  Philippines, 
320 


TAHITI,  as  seen  by  Cook,  357 
Taiping  rebellion,   127 
Tasman,  A.  J.,  voyage  of,  462 
Tehuantepec,  isthmus  of,   174 
Telegraphs    on    land    and    water, 

5-6;  cable  lines,  6 
Terrestrial   paradise,   the,   519-34; 

Bligh's  voyage,  520-21 
Tierra   del    Fuego,    the    land    and 

the  people.  170 
Tokio :  temples,  97 ;  commerce,  98 


INDEX 


549 


Transportation  and  shipping,  past 
and  present,  1-4 

Tropics  for  European  occupa- 
tion, 7 

UNITED  STATES:  altruism  and 
prosperity,  18-19;  new  fiscal  pol- 
icy, 22-23;  the  year  of  '98,  23- 
24;  interference  in  Cuban  af- 
fairs, 45-49;  the  awakening 
after  Dewey's  exploit,  54-60;  a 
new  world  power,  63 ;  manufac- 
tures, 264;  commerce,  294-96 

VALPARAISO,   chief   city   of   Chili, 

168 

Vancouver,   G.,  voyage   of,   469-71 
Van  Noort,  O.,  voyage  of,  457 
Verhagen,  P.,  voyage  of,  455-56 
Victoria,  colony  of,  commerce  with 

U.  S.,  320 

Vizcaino,  S.,  voyage  of,  458-59 
Vladivostok,  Pacific  metropolis  of 

Siberia,  184 

Voyages:  notable  into  the  Pacific, 
436-79;  Magellan,  430-42;  Ben- 
zoni,  446-47;  Pizarro,  447; 
Drake,  449-51 ;  Cavendish,  453- 
55;  Hawkins,  455;  Verhagen, 
455-56 ;  Corte"s,  458  ;  Van  Noort, 
457:  Vizcaino,  459;  Quirosr461; 
Spilbergen,  461 ;  Maire  and 


Schouten,  462;  Tasman,  462; 
Bering,  463;  Cook,  463-65; 
La  Perouse,  468 ;  Mears,  467 ; 
Vancouver,  469-71;  Humboldt, 
47 1 ;  Von  Krusenstern  and 
Lisiansky,  472 ;  Kotzebue,  473  ; 
Beechey,  474;  Darwin's  scien- 
tific journey,  476-79;  Selkirk, 
481-82;  Nassau  fleet,  483-84; 
Shelvocke,  486-87;  Anson,  490- 
92 

WALL,    the    great,    of    China,    80 

Washington :  wealth  of,  264 ; 
commerce  and  manufactures, 
310-11 

Weyler :  the  wicked  one,  35 ;  in- 
famous treatment  of  the  Cubans, 
41-43;  recalled,  but  not  deposed, 
44 

World  powers  compared,  6-7 

YANGTSE  and  other  river  svstema 
of  China,  81-82 

Yokohama,  commerce  and  produc- 
tions, 97 

Yukon,  transportation  and  devel- 
opment, 4 

ZIPANGU:  the  Japan  of  Marco 
Polo,  78 ;  wealth  of,  259 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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